


Red Splotch of Fate

by especiallythezefronposter



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Baking, Confident Steve Rogers, Cuddling & Snuggling, Felching, Friendship, Insecure Tony Stark, Insomnia, M/M, Multiple Orgasms, Polyamory, Recreational Drug Use, Rimming, Rough Sex, Secrets, Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Sub Tony, Threesome - M/M/M, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony-centric, established bruce/tony, even slower burn steve/bruce, slow burn steve/tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:01:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28337391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/especiallythezefronposter/pseuds/especiallythezefronposter
Summary: Sometimes soulmarks are just mistakes, as Howard had assured Tony when Tony was eight. When you're as bad of a person as Tony is, with as good of a soulmate as Steve Rogers is, you know that that is true. Even once they find Steve in the Arctic, Tony doesn't plan on ever letting the guy know they have the same soulmark.In which Tony worries about everything, Steve tries his damnest to get Tony to finally stop avoiding him and Bruce is Tony's boyfriend, Captain America fanboy extraordinaire and the person who will solve all of Tony's problems. Well, eventually. Hopefully.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Bruce Banner/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Comments: 10
Kudos: 122





	Red Splotch of Fate

There are people who save themselves for their soulmate. Soulmarks are rare and it’s generally frowned upon to let a bond like that go to waste. Movies and reality TV shows make millions showing off that perfect first kiss between soulmates, complete with an intimate lovemaking scene that cuts away to the blissful next morning after all of thirty seconds. 

Tony tries to imagine his life working out like that sometimes, when he’s at the bottom of something expensive and imported that makes him too sentimental for his own good. He imagines it in tones of yellow and white that some editing team will amplify after, Steve Rogers lifting Tony’s shirt, taking it off, even, and going down on one knee to kiss the mark over Tony’s stomach, getting back up to gaze into Tony’s eyes, stroke back his hair and kiss his lips for the very first time.

It’s never really funny, but it always makes Tony laugh. He’s sure Rogers is even more traditional than most, wouldn’t be too happy to know Tony’s an all-round slut, even if Rogers won’t be interested in being soulmates anyways. Because Tony _knows_ he won’t be. He’ll hate Tony as much as Howard hated him, won’t have any interest in a bratty rich kid with a big mouth and not much else to offer. Tony isn’t shit. He’s good at making stuff, at selling it, but without that, without his money and his inventions, all of which are replaceable, he’s nothing. He’s not even all that bratty, really, when it comes down to it, never has anything useful to say. 

Sometimes soulmarks are just mistakes, as Howard assured Tony when Tony was eight and Howard first showed Tony how to cover his soulmark with an adhesive patch. Back then, Tony had believed Steve Rogers to be dead, but even now, he knows that’s not what Howard meant. Howard always knew Steve must have survived the Arctic. He just also knew that wretched men like Tony would never end up with anyone like Steve, no matter what their soulmark said.

So that’s the thing, there are people who save themselves for their soulmate, but Tony doesn’t have any reason to. He’s known that since he was seven, when he drew Steve’s soulmark onto his own chest like the idiotic, Disney-obsessed child he was and Howard scrubbed at his skin until it was bleeding. Ironically, the bright red blood didn’t look much different from his mark.

When he was twenty two he first met Bruce Banner and really, really gave up on saving himself. They’ve fucked a ton of times over the years, even go for dinner instead sometimes, when either of them isn’t in the mood. One time, they played house in Tony’s Malibu mansion for an entire week when Bruce was in the area for a conference. Tony has a shitty flip phone, encrypted to hell and back, on which Bruce lets him know his location sometimes, making Tony the only person on the planet who knows where he is with Bruce’s own consent. It’s the most functional romantic arrangement Tony has ever had, even though it’s sporadic and not exclusive at all.

The day they pull Steve from the ice, Bruce calls him on the flip phone. 

‘I still don’t know any Mandarin,’ he says when Tony picks up. It’s three am in DC and Tony is drunk and stupid in a hotel suite he doesn’t remember paying for. He feels like he deserves it, though, after spending half the day at SHIELD, outside the top secret room on the top secret base where they’re keeping Rogers for now, stable but not waking up. Tony only went in to see him for a few minutes, his still face and his bright red soulmark right over his sternum, his chest moving almost imperceptibly. ‘But please tell me that they’re saying what I think they’re saying.’ 

Bruce is somewhere in China, playing doctor for a town that only has old people living in it. Tony isn’t surprised that Rogers made the news even there.

‘I hate that you’re such a Captain America fanboy,’ Tony manages. He’s said this a hundred times before and as per usual, Bruce scoffs, although Tony knows he’s doing that smiling-blushing thing that always makes Tony feel warm. ‘But yeah, they’ve found him alive.’

‘Do you think he’s gonna wake up?’, Bruce asks.

‘He’s survived in the ice for seventy years. It’d be pretty shitty if he died now.’ And Tony hates that more than his fucking soulmark or Bruce’s weird, unironic Captain America obsession. He wants Rogers to wake up. So fucking badly.

‘Are you with someone?’, Bruce asks, because Bruce likes to lecture him on the importance of not drinking when he’s sad and all alone. Fucking hypocrite.

‘Yeah. I’m being fucked right now, can’t you hear.’ Tony slaps his hand against his wrist a few times for effect.

Tony imagines Bruce’s indulgent smile at the shitty joke, finds himself smiling, too.

‘You’re paying for this anyways,’ Bruce says. ‘It’s not like you can’t afford for me to stay on the line for a while, huh?’

Tony doesn’t answer, so Bruce keeps talking, the way he sometimes does when Tony’s too far in his own head for his own good. ‘Did you go to see him? I’m sure they’d let you in, being the son of one of SHIELD’s founders and everything.’ He doesn’t mention that Howard was buddies with Steve for most of the war, because he knows that’s not something Tony likes to think about, even if he doesn’t know the reason why.

‘I went.’ He knows Bruce is gonna eat this shit up, so he continues when he hears his quiet little gasp. ‘It was kind of gross. He looks dead, you know. You don’t realise how much you take movement for granted until someone is just… not doing it.’

‘Fuck,’ Bruce says. ‘That’s fucked up, right? Maybe I should come over for a while. I still have a couple of contacts in the Caribbean from the last time I was there.’

Tony smiles. They do this every time they call, pretend they’re going to be seeing each other sometime soon, that either of them is going to fly out to the other and they’ll pretend the world doesn’t exist for a day or two. ‘So I can sneak you into his room?’

‘So I can hang out with you… And maybe go through some of the data they’ve collected from him since getting him out of the ice.’

Tony knows Bruce won’t come, but it’s nice to imagine, at least. They spend the rest of the phone call like that, saying stupid shit, laughing, teasing each other. By the time Tony falls asleep, Bruce still on the other end of the line, he’s actually feeling better.

Rogers wakes up only a few weeks later. Coulson tells him they’ll try to keep him under the illusion that he’s still in the forties for a while. Tony only barely manages not to laugh in his face. Of course Rogers doesn’t fall for it. Tony hacks into the security camera’s just to see the look on his face. It turns out to be a bad idea, because Rogers looking all lost and emotional only makes Tony feel like shit.

Coulson bugs him about meeting the guy, because he’s got a huge boner for Rogers and probably thinks that he’ll be happy to meet Howard’s son. Tony knows that won’t be the case, of course, but tells Coulson he’ll think on it, although he’s already decided it’s not going to happen.

He’s kind of busy dying of palladium poisoning for the first few weeks of Rogers being back from the dead, watches him meet the president and attend US Army press conferences with an empty look in his eye on the TV screen in his lab. He really fucking wishes that wouldn’t hurt as much as it did, that he wasn’t so desperate for Rogers to be happy.

He manages to fix the palladium poisoning without Bruce, Rhodey or Pepper ever finding out, which is nice. It kind of sucks that Natalie Rushman turns out to be a spy in the process, but it’s his own fault that he’s so fucking trusting of people, that he gets attached so easily.

He takes up a few extra responsibilities at Stark industries once that whole thing is behind him, to keep his schedule too packed for any of the playdates Coulson wants to schedule with Rogers. He becomes head of R&D, takes on new projects without Pepper having to bully him into it first and takes a couple of trips out of the country, usually to represent Stark Industries at a conference on another continent but also, once, to spend two nights in Patagonia with Bruce.

Whenever Coulson calls he can truthfully tell him he’s too busy and only feels a little smug about it. That is until Coulson not only calls him, but shows up at the new, sustainable tower Pepper and him have built in the middle of Manhattan and talks him into saving the world. It all happens so fast that he doesn’t really think of Rogers until he’s boarding the Helicarrier. He just saw Hulk’s picture among the files JARVIS was displaying for him and figured he should at least go to keep Bruce out of trouble. He has a bad track record with government organisations, after all.

Then Rogers tells him he’s nothing without the suit, which Tony fucking knows, so it shouldn’t hurt so much, and then afterwards, he tries to apologise, which is worse somehow.

They’re outside the shwarma place by then, ready to make the trek across half the city to a house in Williamsburg that Tony inherited from his grandparents when he was eleven. The Tower is too damaged to be of much use to them, but the house is outside the splash zone and the tiny drone Tony sent out showed him it’s still intact. 

Bruce and Tony have been sticking together since before dinner, but now Bruce is distracted by interrogating Thor about Asgardian biology and apparently Rogers takes that as an invitation to talk to Tony.

‘Tony,’ he starts, and somehow that’s enough for Tony’s heart to be beating in his throat. ‘About what I said on the Helicarrier… I take that all back. I was… I was lashing out and that wasn’t fair to you. None of those things are actually true. I know that now.’

Tony musters a smile. ‘Oh, but they are, Cap. You hit the nail right on the head.’

‘I don’t think I did,’ Rogers insists.

‘I did my job today. Nothing else. Once you catch up on all the other shit I’ve done, you’ll see.’

Rogers gets quiet at that, frowning slightly but seemingly giving up.

‘None of it’s an insult. See, I still think that everything that matters about you came out of a bottle, but you still matter. That’s what counts in the end.’ Tony is good at this, better than he is at anything else, at being an annoying piece of shit until people finally leave him be.

Rogers’ jaw clenches and they walk the rest of the way in silence

There’s enough rooms in the house that Tony doesn’t have to worry about anyone having to sleep on a couch. He pairs off with Bruce, because he’s not going to be having an easy night, everything put together.

Bruce and Pepper, who get along way better that Tony thinks they should, manage to talk Tony into inviting everyone to move into the Tower with him. They stay in the house until renovations are done and it’s disconcerting how normal that week in the house is.

Bruce and Tony fuck a lot, falling back into the honeymoon phase their relationship has been suspended in for as long as it’s existed. There are team breakfasts and team dinners and even team lunches for those who are in the house at noon.

It’s mostly Thor and Bruce who are there, since neither of them currently has a job in the US and Bruce can’t leave the house too much for fear of being found by Ross. Clint and Natasha work for SHIELD and Rogers joined firefighters, city workers and volunteers in cleaning up the city. Tony is surprised that Thor isn’t joining him, but when he asks Thor frowns like thunder and says, ‘I will not leave friend Banner to fend for himself against the abominable Ross.’

Tony would crack a joke at the dramatic wording, but he’s too busy resisting the urge to hug Thor to come up with anything to say.

Tony is surprised that he kind of likes the mundanity of their short-lived stay at the house. Pepper is forcing him to work nine to five _pm_ instead if five _am_ , because she insists that he needs “time to heal” because he went through a “traumatic event”. He thinks that’s bullshit, but she teams up with JARVIS, who blocks his computers at his office at SI at five pm sharp every day, so there’s not much he can do about it. So he heads home to their Williamsburg suburb, where the houses are all standalones and each front yard has its own two trees. It’s the kind of place he’s never actually going to live, the kind of place where people go when they’ve made or inherited enough money to put their family before their career. It’s nice to play pretend at that life for a week, to eat whatever earth-Asgard fusion foods Thor and Bruce come up with and to listen to Clint and Natasha’s anecdotes about weird shit SHIELD has made them do. Even having Steve there is nice. He has so much of an effect on Tony that it should be kind of embarrassing, but it’s mostly just really, really nice. Tony feels good when he feels good, gets all warm in his chest when Steve is smiling, sleeps better just hearing his voice say ‘goodnight’ before he heads off to bed.

-

Things only really start to crumble when Pepper has him go over the Tower’s renovation plans and it turns out that she didn’t have anyone design an apartment for Bruce, she just put him up in the penthouse with Tony. Tony can’t imagine anything better than waking up next to Bruce every single day, but that seems too good to be true. Their whole thing has worked so well for so long because they’re never together for long. Tony is sure half of what Bruce likes about him is built up out of anticipation and a bunch of character traits Tony doesn’t actually have. They’ve known each other for decades, but they’ve never known each other for longer than a week. He’s sure Bruce is going to hate him once he finds out that Tony’s nightmares are way more of a regular thing than he’s made them out to be, that Tony can’t stick to an eating or sleeping schedule to save his life and would rather face the Ten Rings again than talk about his feelings. Bruce is mature and kind and has better things to do than deal with Tony’s moods and his ridiculous screaming in the middle of the night.

Pepper, functional adult that she is, tells him to just talk to Bruce about it. Tony decides to do the complete opposite and, once he’s talked her into giving Bruce a separate apartment, he spends half the day flying his suit over and under the ocean with the excuse that he’s testing long-term water resistance. Whenever he goes under water and JARVIS displays his oxygen levels on his HUD, he panics, reminded of how he couldn’t breathe when he was flying the nuke into space during the Battle, and so he tries to work through that panic. It doesn’t really get better and JARVIS tells him to give it a rest, so after a while he does, decides to just change up the HUD so that it’ll look different than it did during his little trip to space.

He tells himself he’ll talk to Bruce tomorrow, then proceeds to tell himself that again the next day and the day after that. By the time renovations are done, he still hasn’t brought it up.

They move into the Tower on a rainy Sunday afternoon that Pepper forced Tony to take off from work. It’s another weirdly mundane thing. Thor and Steve insist on helping the movers carry boxes and Clint gets weirdly excited about his apartment, to the point where he hugs Tony not once but twice. Bruce, who’s been saying that Tony looks tired, pulls Tony down onto the couch once Thor has placed it and puts an arm around him. Thor carried the couch up 82 floors of emergency stairs and Steve seems to make it into a competition, because they spend the rest of the afternoon lugging increasingly large items up the stairs.

Tony falls asleep against Bruce’s shoulder, which he’ll later blame on Thor taking too long to get the coffee machine upstairs.

After dinner, when he’s been assured by several people that everyone has a bed and a fully-functioning bathroom, even if the rest of their apartments are a mess of boxes and misplaced furniture items, Tony finally heads for his workshop. JARVIS’s presence in the Tower was barely damaged, except for a few now-replaced sensors and speakers on the upper floors, but Tony has a ridiculous amount of privacy updates to go through with him. It’s fine to do it with JARVIS, but he’s going to have to do this with the team as well and then maybe make adjustments to JARVIS’s programming, if there’s anything they object to. He’s nervous about it, to say the least, and JARVIS picks up on it right away. He’s running the little speech he’ll give the others by Tony when he pauses to inform Tony that Bruce is requesting access to the lab.

Tony has had a very long time to grow accustomed to the way Bruce Banner looks when he leaves open a few too many shirt buttons, but it’s still a sight even now.

‘Hi,’ Tony manages.

‘Hi. I can’t help but notice your directions to my apartment are different from Pepper’s.’

‘Oh.’ Tony’s mouth feels dry. Swallowing doesn’t help. ‘Yeah, she kind of made a mistake. You’ve got your own floor, your own lab and everything.’

‘And you don’t happen to be moving there, too?’

Tony shakes his head, unable to look at Bruce. ‘You deserve a break. From me.’

‘Do you remember Berlin, ‘95, with the whole thing with your dad’s award?’

Tony nods, still not looking at Bruce. His dad had posthumously won an award and Tony had been the one who had to go and accept it while everyone and their mother wanted to interview him or pitch their product idea to him or fuck him. Bruce had flown out to Berlin, claiming he was meeting with a nuclear fusion expert, but spending most of his time making Tony eat, sleep or smile. Tony isn’t sure why he’d bring it up now. It’s a good example of how useless Tony is at taking care of himself. Maybe he means to talk to him about that.

‘Remember how I told you that I’d spend the rest of my life with you if I could?’

They’d been fighting at the time. Because Tony didn’t think Bruce should be taking care of Tony as much as he did, that he should be annoyed with how needy Tony was, that he should have gotten tired of him by now. Bruce hadn’t exactly agreed and he always gets sentimental when he’s angry. 

Tony only nods.

‘That’s still true. That’s always going to be true.’ He takes Tony’s hand, slides it to his shoulder where, towards his back, he has one of his nastiest scars. 

Tony looked into mark removal when he was in his thirties. He knows that research suggests that removing a soulmark breaks the bond between soulmates. He knows that you have to dig at least and inch deep for the mark to actually be removed and even deeper if you’re not being precise. Bruce’s soulmark is gone, as completely as it possibly can be, thanks to his father’s shitty handiwork. ‘I’m not leaving you unless you don’t want me here. No breaks.’

Tony pulls him into a hug because something about Bruce always melts his stress away. ‘We can have a sleep over for a couple of nights?’ Because he can’t ask Bruce to move in with him. That sounds irreversible, like Bruce will be stuck with him forever, without a way to opt out. ‘Like, every night. With sexy pillow fights and everything. I’ll get you silk pyjamas like in that Singaporean hotel. And I’ll only wear lace panties and those bralettes you like.’

Bruce’s face is mostly pressed into Tony’s neck and Tony can feel him laugh.

-

Mundanity is harder to find at the Tower. Bruce spends most of his time working now that he has access to a lab again. Tony isn’t any better, bargains with JARVIS and Pepper until they give him back free reign over his own schedule, on the condition that he attends at least two team meals a day. Natasha and Clint still work for SHIELD and even take multi-day missions every now and again. Rogers somehow manages to keep busy, whether it’s with more post-Battle clean-up or SHIELD assignments or catching up on the twentieth and twenty first century. Thor is visiting some of his Midgardian friends, then starts to attend college courses to renew the medical license he apparently had in the seventies.

Everyone who’s in New York somehow manages to make it to breakfast and dinner at the Tower each day, even Tony, who once reschedules an entire presentation just to get home in time for Clint’s weirdly good cooking.

Sometimes, when everyone is in town, he takes evenings off work to spend time with them. They watch movies and play board games and spend entire nights just talking over whatever fancy liquors and aged wines Tony has on offer that night. He gets to know Thor and Clint a little better, gets hand-to-hand combat training from Clint, who knows what it’s like to fight without any physical enhancements, learns to cook from Thor, who finds it hilarious that Tony is so bad at such a simple thing. Thor tells him about Asgardian technology, even comes to check out Tony’s workshop every now and again. Once, he just sits down at an empty workstation with some of his pre-med course materials and studies for half a day while Tony works on suit upgrades. Then that becomes a thing and Bruce starts to work in Tony’s workshop as well, because Tony always designed it with Bruce’s needs in mind, always hoped they could share it if Bruce ever made it back to the US for a couple of days.

Things are going great with the four of them, and Tony knows that Bruce, Clint and Thor get along fine with Steve and Natasha, too, even if Bruce and Natasha might take a while to really start to trust one another.

It’s just Tony who’s avoiding them. Natasha doesn’t seem to mind it, seems to get that Tony needs some time to get over the whole Natalie Rushman thing. Steve, though, is another story entirely. He tries so hard to be nice to Tony, goes out of his way to ask him how he’s doing and how his day was, asks him about some of Tony’s inventions that have come up during his modern times catch-up. Tony can get away with short answers and excuses about how busy he is, but he fucking hates letting Steve down even a little bit, and Steve isn’t the type of person who’ll just let someone avoid him without telling him what’s wrong.

Tony doesn’t spend as much time at his SI office anymore now that he has a fully-equipped workshop right here in New York, but he does sometimes, either when he’s mostly got paperwork or programming to do or if he’s feeling too overwhelmed by having five other people around constantly and just needs a breather.

Today he’s being extra good and has let JARVIS schedule a couple of people who’ve been requesting appointments with him for months. The first two go okay, but he’s left the door open for the third when he hears a knock, looks up and sees Steve standing right there in the doorway.

He looks good. Kind of uncomfortable, maybe, but he’s wearing jeans and a button-down that make him look like the type of escort Tony would pay to top the fuck out of him before and after dinner.

‘Sorry, I have an appointment in a few minutes,’ Tony tells him, only barely glancing up from the hologram in front of him.

‘Yeah, I know. JARVIS scheduled it with another name so you wouldn’t cancel.’

Tony doesn’t look surprised, he’s good at keeping his features neutral. Rogers having the balls to use JARVIS against Tony is not only surprising but heart-warming. Tony always likes people who get along with his family. ‘Well then, Cap, sit down and tell me what I can do you for.’

Steve stops for a moment at the double entendre, like he’s going to say something about it, but then he sits and lays his hands flat on the desk like he’s trying not to fidget. ‘I’ve noticed that you and I aren’t getting along the way everyone else is. I know that you can’t force friendship, but we should at least be on good terms if we’re going to be saving the world together.’

Tony nods, is polite enough to minimise the hologram, although actually looking at Steve’s face seems like too much to ask.

‘So I figured… I don’t know. I can at least ask you why you hate me, right?’

‘I don’t hate you.’

‘You dislike me.’

‘That’s not hate.’

Steve shrugs. ‘Whatever it is. There’s a reason behind it, right?’

‘We’re just very different people. I don’t think we have much in common.’

‘I was born in the 1910’s. Do you think I have much in common with anybody here?’

Tony shrugs. ‘Maybe they’re all old souls.’

‘Look, your father wrote me letters.’ Tony feels like the arc reactor is malfunctioning, but he keeps his face neutral. He’d always vaguely expected that the ridiculous amount of shit his father left Steve would contain maudlin bullshit like _letters_. He’d never really wanted to know about any of it, though. ‘I’m sure it wasn’t fun to meet me and find out I’m not the person he made me out to be.’

‘That’s not it,’ Tony manages, because Steve is exactly who his father made him out to be. ‘You’re… He was right about you.’

‘Then what is it, Tony? I’m grasping at straws, here.’

‘My entire life I was told that I wasn’t as good as you. It builds up some resentment.’

‘Well, now you know that’s not the case. I cuss and fall asleep during movies and burn pancakes and _just once_ I farted where Clint could hear and he hasn’t let me live it down. And you… You’re Iron Man, you’re a genius, you have eight different charities, you _invented a new element_.’

Tony clears his throat. He’s hoping Steve won’t do that again, wax poetic about Tony like he’s actually worth something. It’s a bit overwhelming. ‘I calculated once how many people have died because of me. You’d really feel like a fool for saying so many good things about me if you knew the number.’

Steve looks heart-broken, which makes Tony feel like shit. ‘You shut that all down, that’s what counts.’

‘Look,’ Tony manages. ‘You think you’re going to like me because you don’t know me. Once you do, you’re going to realise I’m not some sweet philanthropist with a flying metal suit. I’d like to spare you the disappointment.’

‘I don’t think I’m going to dislike you at all.’

‘Then we’ll agree to disagree.’

‘Or we make it into a bet. You stop shutting me out, and if I don’t like you a month from now, I’ll owe you a motorcycle.’

‘I could just buy a motorcycle.’

‘I had a few of them back in the forties, the military kept giving me the nice ones. Howard had been keeping them oiled and safe at some garage in Brooklyn. I’ve gone to get them back last week. JARVIS helped me look it up, they’re basically priceless.’

The smug look on Steve’s face makes it hard for Tony not to smile. ‘Well, then I guess we have a deal.’

Steve extends his hand and Tony shakes it. Touching him feels _good_ , but Tony tries not to dwell on that.

Steve gets up. ‘Thanks for meeting with me,’ he says, cheerful now that he’s got what he wants. ‘We’re playing Pictionary tonight and a little birdy told me we’re going to be on the same team.’

‘This birdy?’ Tony asks, raising his middle finger. He’s failing at his not-smiling thing and it only gets worse when Steve laughs happily at Tony’s joke before he leaves.

-

Steve’s stubborn little bet is Tony’s worst nightmare. Especially when, only twenty minutes into Pictionary, he realises there’s no way he’s going to be able to hide that he actually likes Steve.

Clint swapped the Pictionary cards for Cards Against Humanity cards and they’re playing a hybrid version of both that ends up with the white board being drawn full of penises at least once a round. It becomes even funnier when Steve starts to encounter words he doesn’t know and explains what he imagines they might mean. His interpretations are either laughably innocent or way dirtier than the actual explanation and Tony is hiccupping with laughter even though he’s barely drunk.

Steve, who’s been introduced to Asgardian mead by Thor last week, blushes and giggles when he’s drunk, making it very hard for Tony to look away from him at all.

Luckily Bruce is there to distract him. He seems delighted that Tony has finally stopped pushing Steve away and keeps whispering shitty jokes to Tony, references to weird shit they’ve done together and Tony can’t help but laugh at those, too.

They take a break when everyone except for Bruce is well and truly drunk and when Tony pulls Bruce off to the balcony, they get catcalls from everyone, even Steve.

‘You wanna smoke?’, Tony asks, because even if Bruce doesn’t drink, he’s never shied away from some pot. ‘I have a couple of grams lying around upstairs.’

‘I’m not gonna be high around Captain fucking America, Tony.’

‘He’s drunk around _you_. I don’t think he’ll mind.’

‘Being drunk isn’t illegal.’

‘Well, being high isn’t illegal in Amsterdam.’

‘He’s not Captain Amsterdam. And I don’t need to get high all the time, anyways, things are good just like this. I’m really enjoying myself. And I’m glad that you’ve stopped being an ass to Steve. It was starting to bum me out.’

‘He’s gonna give me a motorcycle in a month.’

‘What?’

‘We made a bet. I stop shutting him out. If he likes me in a month I lose, If he doesn’t like me, I win.’

‘Why wouldn’t he like you?’

‘I’m not a very likable person.’

‘I like you.’

‘Yeah, but you’ve known me forever. You probably have Stockholm syndrome.’

‘Or maybe I just like you for you.’

Tony grimaces. ‘I’ll get you a gram, okay?’

Bruce sighs, most likely about to use Captain America as an argument again, but then the balcony door slides open and the great Captain himself walks onto the balcony.

He’s scratching the back of his neck, all awkward and sweet. ‘You know,’ he says. ‘My hearing’s pretty good. I could hear you talking through the door and I just thought I’d say that there’s no need not to smoke on my account. I don’t mind. Most people on the frontlines did drugs. I know weed’s pretty innocent.’ 

‘You want me to bring some for you, too, Cap?’

He shrugs. ‘It doesn’t do much for me. I’d just be wasting your stash.’

‘I’m a billionaire, Spangles. I can buy more.’

Rogers smiles. ‘Okay, then.’

And so Tony gets all of the Avengers high. They give up on their game of Pictionary against Humanity and talk instead. Rogers has all kinds of stories about weird shit his unit got up to in Europe and Tony makes Bruce tell every travel story he’s told Tony ten times over. Tony ends up with his head in Bruce’s lap, poking at his chin as he speaks while Bruce half-heartedly bats his hands away and he thinks maybe he really, really loves Bruce.

He always thought that he’d never be able to truly love anyone other than his soulmate, but he’s pretty sure what he feels for Bruce is the real deal.

It’s not as scary as he thought it would be. Bruce smiles down at him and Tony smiles right back. Natasha and Clint go to bed at some point and Tony just dozes with Bruce, Thor and Steve talk about who knows what.

He gets a nightmare, because of course he does, and wakes up slowly, his body tingling. He sits up, then gets up from the couch, ignoring the way everyone glances up at him. ‘I’m off to bed,’ he says.

Thor and Steve tell him goodnight, Bruce tells him he’ll be right down.

Tony doesn’t go to bed but to the lab, where Bruce finds him half an hour later. He doesn’t ask Tony why he’s still up, just opens the shitty, dinky laptop he won’t let Tony replace and settles in to work for a couple more hours.

-

Rogers likes to abuse his bet with Tony to get Tony to do more activities with the rest of the team. Tony doesn’t really mind, since most of the activities are fun, but the one big exception are the weird variety classes Steve and Bruce came up with, where Steve teaches them to draw and Bruce teaches them too meditate and Clint, who doesn’t know anything about pottery, teaches them how to make pottery on a pottery wheel. His next class is on lockpicking, which he does know a lot about. Natasha makes them do her afternoon yoga with her, Thor teaches them a very fast and very complicated waltz and Tony, after Rogers comes down to the workshop to ask him, teaches them to encrypt and decrypt a file. After a while, the classes turn into a way for Clint, Bruce, Natasha and Thor to ambush Rogers and Tony into learning how to cook. Rogers isn’t too pleased about that, but he takes it in stride and actually tries his best at the instructions he gets. Tony, too competitive for his own good, wants to do better than Steve, and by the third class, it’s not the others pestering them into it anymore. They don’t complain, show up and get to work before anyone has to tell them to. Tony spends actual hours researching recipes to find something impressive to whip up for everyone. He finds a Masterchef episode with a cool dessert made by a chef he actually knows, talks him into giving him the full recipe and recreates it during their next class. He shouldn’t be surprised that he fails, or that Steve abandons his own mise en place for the main course to help Tony out with his split sabayon. Steve is as hopeless at making anything of the instructions as Tony is, but after three hours and much help from JARVIS, they actually finish every single element of the dessert.

They order take-out because Steve never ended up finishing that night’s main course and everyone oohs and ahs at their neatly presented dessert like indulgent parents. It actually tastes good and Tony catches himself smiling stupidly at Steve across the table throughout the evening.

-

Tony tries his hardest not to let it happen, he really does. He starts using his SI office more and more again once Steve makes it a habit to drop by the lab to spend a couple of hours drawing or filling out SHIELD mission debriefs, biting the back of his pen. He skips team activities instead of shuffling around meetings and deadlines to make time for them, skips entire dinners when he finds he doesn’t have any room to spare in his schedule.

But Rogers is nothing if not stubborn and might actually have hacked JARVIS, since JARVIS keeps picking his side. He manages Tony’s schedule in such a way that dinnertime and the evening remain largely empty spaces for the team to fill up, lets Steve into the lab when Tony is in “do not disturb”-mode, since he’s been using it as a way to avoid his team and JARVIS can apparently decide for himself when Tony is actually busy and when he’s just being an ass.

Steve will let himself into Tony’s office during what other people consider ‘lunch break’ and will feed Tony Thor, Bruce or Clint’s cooking while Tony pretends to work. It becomes so fucking easy, having Steve there. He’ll hang out while Tony and Bruce are working the night away post-battle, since battles usually make Steve too jittery for sleep. He’ll convince Tony to bake weird stuff with him when Tony stumbles upon a creative block in the workshop, so that he’s forced to take a step back and look at the problem from a distance for a while. 

He gets along with Bruce, too, which somehow makes things both better and worse. Better, because Tony likes the look of the two of them together. Bruce really seems to enjoy Steve’s company and Steve seems to enjoy him just as much. Worse, because Tony doesn’t want Bruce coming to the realisation that Tony is a worthless piece of shit. He knows that it’s an unavoidable conclusion for anyone who hangs out with Tony for long enough. It’s why he’s never had a romantic relationship that lasted for over a year and still doesn’t really know what friendships are at 40 years old. He has Rhodey and Pepper and Bruce, of course, but they’re like family, forced to be around Tony until they had no choice but to tolerate him. He’s sure that every single one of them will have a moment at some point where they realise Tony really, really isn’t worth it, the way Tony had with his father when he was sixteen. He’s been able to put it off with Bruce and Rhodey because of how infrequently he sees them, and Pepper is just such a good person that she’s been kind to him so far. But he knows the moment is going to come, that people can only ignore the truth for so long. It’s getting closer with Bruce, now that they’re pretty much living together, and it’s only going to happen faster if he constantly has Rogers, amazing in every possible way, to compare to Tony.

Tony tries to spend less time with him, but it’s not that easy, really. Steve is a constant by now. Tony hadn’t realised when he was avoiding him, but he doesn’t like to be alone, spends pretty much all of his time on the common floors. He’s in luck, with all of them. Thor is just as used as Steve is to constantly being surrounded by people and Bruce never minds some company, either. Tony is much more at ease all on his own, but the draw of both his _boyfriend_ and his soulmate is pretty much irresistible, to the point where JARVIS doesn’t have to force him to make time for his team anymore.

He schedules meetings later in the morning now, so that he can linger and talk after breakfast and gets home before dinner is served, to help with preparations if necessary. Rogers and him have become the go-to dessert guys, so usually there’s dough to knead or batter to mix. If he doesn’t have to be at the office to meet with anyone, he works from home, coming out of his workshop to do his paperwork at the dinner table in the living room while Thor studies beside him and Steve reads on the couch.

Steve is pretty touchy, too, once Tony starts paying attention. He’s still careful around Tony, mindful of his limits, but with the others, he’s comfortable enough to hug them when they need it, slings his arm around whoever he’s sitting next to on the couch during movie nights.

Tony is jealous the first time he notices. Clint is sharing a loveseat with Steve and Steve slings his arm over the back of the couch halfway through the movie. When Clint cracks a joke, Steve ruffles his hair as he laughs. It’s kind of endearing. Which is why Tony feels so guilty that his blood is fucking boiling watching the two of them. Steve doesn’t move his hand back to the back of the couch but leaves it around Clint’s shoulders and Clint relaxes into the contact.

Then there’s Thor getting bad news from Asgard and Bruce having a panic attack while Tony is at work and Tony watches both embraces on JARVIS’s security cameras, the easy way they pull close and let go. Natasha’s shoulder gets disjointed during a mission and Steve gives her a massage, following Clint’s and Natasha’s meticulous instructions. Bruce falls asleep against Steve’s shoulder during a movie night and Tony fakes a work emergency to avoid having to look at them like that for another hour.

He’s pretty sure Steve wants to talk to him about it. He keeps trying to corner Tony for a chat and Tony keeps avoiding him, an expert at that by now.

He keeps up that little dance for a week, but then someone in Kerala Bruce owes a favour to calls in that favour and Bruce is off to the other side of the world again. Tony feels like he should be used to it still. He’s only been living with Bruce for five months, he should still know what it’s like to deal with his absence. It his him harder than he ever would have expected, though.

After the first night that Bruce is gone, Tony decides to give up on sleep altogether, since the tossing and turning and the constant night terrors and flashbacks can’t be worth it. He doesn’t want the others to see how much of a wreck he is without Bruce to keep him together and so he locks himself in his workshop for most of the time. He ignores the team’s invitations for him to come hang out with them, even when they grow more insistent.

He manages a few naps on the couch in the workshop every now and again, mainly after he’s videochatted with Bruce.

Bruce knows Tony is full of shit when Tony says that he’s sleeping and eating right, but there isn’t much he can do except lecture him and hope Tony will listen. 

Tony doesn’t, but Bruce finds ways to pressure him even from afar. ‘I’m not gonna call you again until JARVIS tells me you’ve had six hours of sleep.’

Tony sighs. ‘That isn’t fair.’

‘Me having to watch you destroy yourself isn’t all that fair, either,’ Bruce says mildly and Tony wants to touch his face so much it _hurts_.

Tony doesn’t say anything, just gets back to work on his circuit board, knowing another one of Bruce’s lectures is coming.

As usual, though, Bruce is full of surprises. ‘Steve is probably reading on the common floor, right? Go ask him if he wants to come sit in your room while you sleep. He did that for me when you were in Japan a few weeks ago. It helped.’

‘No need. I’ll just head to bed. Seeing you always helps.’

‘Sure, Tony. Goodnight.’

He does actually head to bed when they end their call, but two hours later, he’s still tossing and turning. Then comes a knock on his door.

He frowns. ‘JARVIS?’, he asks, but JARVIS is silent and only brings up the lights to 50 percent.

‘Come in,’ he manages instead, sitting up in bed and trying not to look tiny and weak.

Steve comes in, as Tony had been half expecting, and scratches the back of his neck.

‘Bruce called me to –‘

‘I know what he asked you. Let’s not talk about it.’

There’s a silence that neither of them fills until Steve says, ‘I can read in the dark.’

‘I don’t sleep in the dark,’ Tony manages, gesturing to the blue glow of the nightlight he designed after the Battle.

‘Good.’

Steve seems at a loss for a moment, but then he takes the armchair by the dresser and shoves it closer to Tony’s bed, right by the nightlight. Tony remembers that it had been closer to the bed, before, when he came back from Japan, but one of the cleaning bots must have moved it back.

Steve sits gracefully, opens up his book and starts reading. ‘Goodnight,’ he mumbles.

‘Night,’ Tony says and he turns over onto his side, facing away from Steve. He’s weirdly aware of him still, the sound of the pages, of Steve moving slightly.

Tony is so fucking jittery, attuned to Steve and all his little sounds. He tries to relax, tries to be comforted by his presence, but every time he starts to calm down, he thinks _Steve is in my room_ and his heart goes hammering off again. After an hour of that, when Tony is in the middle of aggressively refluffing his pillow because maybe he’ll be able to sleep if it’s less indented, Steve puts down his book.

‘I’m not helping,’ he says. 

Tony sits up, dropping his pillow, and shrugs. ‘Bruce is better at sleeping than I am. I only did this to humour him.’

‘Would you humour him for just a little longer?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Bruce has nightmares sometimes. You know that better than I do. Me sitting there didn’t really help then, either, so I’d be in the bed with him, to read. If he woke up from a nightmare all he had to do was reach out until he found me and he’d know he was safe.’

‘You shared a bed with my boyfriend?’

‘I’m sorry. We didn’t do anything unorthodox. I don’t want to cause any trouble for him. But it did help.’

‘Okay,’ Tony manages, almost casually. He’s really fucking tired and although he could just send Steve away, the thought is very unappealing.

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah. We can always try, right?’

Tony scoots over to Bruce’s side of the bed, because it always kind of smells like his coconut shampoo and the off-brand cologne he uses. Steve pushes the blankets towards Tony to sit against the headboard and Tony turns away from him again, closing his eyes and hoping he’ll magically fall asleep. He’s not sure why he wants this to work so badly, but he hates the idea of Steve leaving this room and never coming back to it again.

Ten minutes later, Tony is still lying on his side with his eyes squeezed shut, trying to ignore the warmth radiating off of Steve. His heart is still going stupidly fast and his breathing won’t slow because _his soulmate is right here in his fucking bed_.

Steve’s book closes again and Tony deflates, sure that this means Steve is going to leave him all alone. Then his hand slides over Tony’s shoulder, over his neck into Tony’s hair. Tony can’t help but shiver. Steve runs his fingers though Tony’s hair over and over, smoothing it down and messing it up again, all gentle and slow and warm. It helps Tony relax almost instantly and he falls into a dreamless sleep.

When he wakes up, Steve is still sitting against the headboard, his book still open in his lap. Tony wonders briefly if he slept at all, but figures that isn’t any of his business. He knows Steve needs less sleep than a regular person and Tony has no reason to doubt he actually gets that sleep.

‘Hi,’ Steve says when he must realise from Tony’s breathing that he’s awake. ‘Good morning.’

‘Morning,’ Tony mumbles, rolling onto his back to look up at Steve.

‘I wasn’t sure if I should leave before you woke up. I can imagine you’d prefer that, but I wasn’t sure.’

Tony waves a hand lazily. ‘You can go whenever you want, I’m sure you have better things to do.’

‘Better things than keeping my team healthy?’

Tony shrugs. ‘Your morning run and stuff, sexy showers with Natasha, I don’t know.’

Steve frowns at the sexy shower thing, which is good. Steve needs a reminder that Tony is an asshole every now and again. ‘If you’d prefer I leave before you wake up, I will. If you prefer I stay, I’ll stay. There’s no other reasons for me to be here or be somewhere else.’

‘I’m gonna go shower,’ Tony says instead of answering Steve’s original question. ‘You’re dismissed.’

Steve rolls his eyes, but gets up. ‘I’ll make crepes for breakfast. Bruce bought way too many types of jam when we went to the farmer’s market.’

Tony didn’t know that, because when Bruce and Steve went to the farmer’s market together like some rich hipster couple, Tony was too busy being mad about it in his workshop to even ask what they bought.

Steve shows up in his lab the next night. Tony stopped paying attention to what time it was at one am and his vision is kind of blurry with exhaustion by now, but he’s too busy to go get coffee and Dummy is still mopping up the last cup of coffee he tried to bring Tony. Now that he has an entire team to keep safe, he’s been even busier than usual. There’s the usual R&D requests and Iron Man patches, but his team needs decent equipment, too. They’re all using SHIELD garbage or in Thor and Bruce’s case, barely any gear at all. Tony wants to make sure they have everything they need to stay safe and every time they have another mission, that list of needs grows a little longer. He’s designing a material for Steve, Natasha and Clint’s uniforms now, something that will hold up against bullets, fire and knives, hopefully even blunt force, to some extent, but that won’t weigh them down or impede their movement. It’s kind of difficult, especially since Natasha could win Olympic gold in gymnastics with ease and so there is a lot of movement for the material to impede, but Tony is good at difficult.

JARVIS announces Steve’s presence instead of asking Tony if he’s allowed in and Tony waves his hand at him vaguely, too busy to convey annoyance in any better way.

‘Hi,’ he says when he hears the door slide open for Steve. ‘Your drawing pad is down by the couch.’

‘I’m not looking for my drawing pad. It’s four am, which is nap time in my book.’

Tony finally looks up from his work, hands stilling. ‘I can stay up for another ten hours with ease.’

‘Bruce trusts me with this. Please just let me do it right.’

Because that’s all it is for Steve, Steve doing Bruce a favour. Which is good, fine, not disappointing at all. ‘I’m good, Steve, thanks.’

‘Come on,’ Steve says. ‘You know I’m too stubborn to just leave.’

Tony wants to give in, but the thought of walking up to his room with Steve weirds him out. What would they say to each other? How are they supposed to act? Was Steve going to be in the bed with him again, would Tony have to ask him that?

Instead he figures Steve can get settled first, taking out all the guesswork for Tony once he gets there.

‘Five more minutes,’ he says. ‘You can already go up there. JARVIS will turn off my machines and everything, so you can be sure I’ll show up.’

Steve hesitates for a moment, but then he nods and turns back to the door.

Five minutes later, the hologram Tony had been staring at without doing anything shuts off. He still stays where he is until JARVIS, another minute later, gently suggests that he go to his room.

Once there, he’s greeted by Steve sitting on his side of the bed, book held up in front of his face. The lights are already low and they don’t say anything to each other. Tony goes into the bathroom to wash his face and put on his anti-aging creams, because crow’s feet are not something he ever wants to have, although he already kind of has them. Once he’s done, wearing only his boxers and a black T-shirt, fabric special-made to cover up the glow of the arc reactor, made back when he tried to hide the arc reactor from Bruce for all of three weeks after Afghanistan, he heads to the bedroom. He ignores Steve as he crawls into Bruce’s side of the bed, back to Steve and shuts his eyes. Steve drops his hand, burying it in Tony’s hair and Tony can’t help but shiver.

‘’S that okay?’, Steve asks.

‘Yeah,’ Tony manages.

He falls asleep almost right away.

He wakes up from a nightmare a few hours later and Steve must have noticed, because his hand is firmly rubbing Tony’s back now, like he’s trying to comfort a child.

‘You’re safe,’ he says into the dark. ‘In the Tower. It’s seven am.’

Tony, too caught in sleep to think about it too much, mumbles a quiet thanks and drifts back off to sleep.

It becomes a daily occurrence. After Tony’s been awake for about eighteen hours, Steve will come and find him and gentle him into sleeping for the next six. He’ll sit and read through mission reports or novels on Tony’s side of the bed while Tony sleeps on Bruce’s side, one of Steve’s hands casually stroking over Tony’s shoulder or head or back, like Tony is an annoying, overgrown cat Steve likes to keep around.

Bruce doesn’t know how long he’s going to be in India for, but Tony knows not to expect anything less than a month. Steve doesn’t seem to understand this, that Bruce would willingly spend so much time away from Tony, but Tony tries to explain to him that this is just what life is like for Bruce, that he’s used to being away from everyone.

‘Yeah,’ Steve says from the bed. ‘But your _soulmate_ , that’s different, right?’

Tony, who is brushing his teeth in the en suite bathroom before they head to breakfast, pauses for a moment, then continues brushing, figuring he has an excuse to stay silent and figure out what to say for at least another minute. If he omits the truth now, he’ll risk Steve finding out from someone else and wondering why Tony didn’t tell him Bruce and Tony aren’t soulmates. If he does dissuade him of that notion, he’s in for a conversation he won’t like.

In the end, all Tony does is step into the doorway to the bedroom for a moment to shrug at Steve. Steve only sighs and keeps talking as Tony rinses his mouth. ‘I’ve heard that it hurts. To be without your soulmate.’

Technically it does hurt Tony to be without Bruce, a constant little ache, but supposedly it’s worse for soulmates. ‘He’s been in and out of my life for twenty years. I can handle it, as long as he comes back,’ he says after he’s spit into the sink and rinsed his mouth. He feels like it’s worse now, though. This is the longest time he’s ever had Bruce so close to him and now that he’s left, it hurts even more than the pain he’d gotten used to over the last decade.

Steve still doesn’t seem entirely convinced, but he lets it go with a pensive look on his face.

They only talk about Bruce again five days later, because Tony always deals with difficult emotions by pretending he doesn’t have them. When he woke up this particular night, it wasn’t from a nightmare, but from a quiet little noise, almost constant, that was completely out of the ordinary. It had turned out to be Steve, whose teeth were chattering where he was leaning back against the headboard, asleep. Tony had managed to shake him awake, but even when he had woken up, he had kept his eyes closed, had shaken his head, had kept begging Tony to make it better, make it stop. ‘I’m going to die,’ he had said, while Tony had still been pleading with him to open his eyes. ‘It’s so cold. I can’t survive this.’

He’d pulled him to lie down on the bed and to Tony’s surprise, Steve had gone easily and Tony had been able to tug up the blankets around him.

‘Hey,’ he’d said. ‘Come on. You’re warming right up, you feel that? You’re good, Steve. You’re getting warmer.’ He’d rubbed Steve’s chest like Steve had done for him so many times now.

It had taken a while for him to actually start getting better. Even after the teeth chattering had stopped, he’d still been mumbling and pleading deliriously, grabbing Tony’s wrist with too much strength like that was going to help anything.

Then that had stopped, too, and he had just been panting, saying, ‘Fuck, fuck, Tony. I’m sorry. The cold wouldn’t go away.’ That’s the point where Tony had run out of desperate platitudes and had crawled back under the covers to wrap his arms around Steve. Steve had hesitated for a moment, hands hovering above the mattress, before he had wrapped them around Tony’s shoulders and had pulled him close.

When Tony wakes up a few hours later, they’re still entangled, Steve’s head resting atop the arc reactor. He rolls onto his back when he realises Tony is awake.

‘Morning,’ he says, voice rougher than usual.

‘Morning,’ Tony echoes easily. They’re silent for a while, but then Tony speaks again. ‘Did you ever do this with Bruce, while I was in Japan?’ He feels like he has the right to be angry about that, about Captain America seducing his number one fanboy and Tony’s boyfriend while Tony’s out of the country.

Steve, even lying in bed, scratches the back of his neck. ‘He gets pretty bad nightmares. It seemed to help. Not… not every night or anything. Twice, while you were gone. I’m sorry.’

‘Yeah,’ Tony says, because he’s a hypocritical asshole, apparently. ‘Maybe you should be.’

‘I know you’re soulmates, so it… I know that I’m only there to comfort him, that he’s got you and won’t get any ideas. I had no other intention than to make him feel okay. But I’m still sorry to you.’

‘Yeah.’ Tony hopes Steve will stop saying Bruce and him are soulmates sometime soon. ‘I’m gonna go get coffee.’

They don’t really talk about it beyond that, but sometimes Tony will tug Steve down beside him in the middle of the night and will wake up with a warm arm slung around his waist. It’s kind of nice, even if Bruce’s absence is still a gaping hole in Tony’s mind.

-

Bruce returns from India nearly two months from when he left, carrying the world’s shittiest souvenirs, including an oversized cheesy tourist shirt for Tony’s collection. Things return to normal, with Bruce in Tony’s bed and Steve hanging out in his lab and on the common floors, but not sleeping beside him anymore.

Tony, to his own surprise, tells Bruce about Steve’s help. He’d expected Bruce to bring it up, since he was the one who got Steve to try and help Tony sleep in the first place, but he’s doing that grown-up thing he sometimes does where he lets Tony work through things at his own pace.

Tony is aggressively spooning Bruce because Bruce dared to suggest going back to the lab when Tony was not done cuddling him yet. They’re still kind of sweaty and lazy from fucking, but Bruce is so jetlagged that he’s too energetic to lie still for long even now. He tries his best to settle, though, and Tony can get a little less obnoxious about his cuddling. He just trails a hand through Bruce’s chest hair, pressing his nose into the back of his neck where he’s all soft and warm and _Bruce_. He remembers, faintly, Steve holding him like this and nuzzling his neck just like that, somewhere in the middle of the night when Tony woke up from a nightmare and Steve sleeping behind him calmed him down right away.

‘Steve stayed here, like, every night.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah. He’d just sit against the headboard and read. And sometimes he’d hold me. But he did that for you, too, right?’

‘Yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.’

‘That’s okay. I would’ve been a dick about it.’

‘That’s not why I didn’t tell you.’

‘Then why?’

‘Because I figured that you’d ask me not to do it again. And I wasn’t sure if I’d be okay with that. I would have, of course, if I’d told you and you’d asked. But I’d have resented you for it.’

‘You’re probably right. That I’d have told you to put a stop to it. But now I get it. Things suck without you. It kind of sucked less with him there.’

‘Yeah? He’s starting to grow on you?’

‘Maybe. I’m never gonna be a gross fanboy like you, but I kind of see the appeal of a big strong cuddlebuddy. He’s quiet when he’s here, that helps, too.’

‘You don’t seem to mind him as much anymore when he’s not quiet, either.’

‘You really want me to like him, huh? Ramping up to a threesome or something?’

‘You’re the one coming up with all the threesome fantasies, not me.’

‘Would you, though, would you fuck him?’

Bruce thinks about it for a while. ‘I think I would, if we weren’t exclusive. But I don’t know if I’d ever make a move.’

‘Why not?’

‘Have you seen him? Have you seen me?’

‘I don’t know if you remember anything I said in the last hour, but I’m kind of a big fan of the way you look.’

He knows Bruce is smiling at that, reaches up one hand to stroke his jaw. ‘We’re not exclusive, though, right?’, Tony asks.

They’ve never really had that conversation since they’ve been living together. Back when they started sleeping together, it was so sporadic that exclusivity was never an expectation. Even as they grew older and some kind of loyalty grew between them that they didn’t have with anyone else, they still knew the other might sleep with someone else if they wanted to. Tony never really minded that and as far as he knows, neither did Bruce. Now he doesn’t feel like fucking anyone other than Bruce, though.

‘When’s the last time you’ve slept with someone other than me?’, Bruce asks.

‘A couple of weeks after Afghanistan. I told you about it, I’m pretty sure, the blonde who ended up kind of reminding me of Pepper.’

‘Yeah, you did tell me about her.’

‘How about you?’

‘Two years ago now, I think, when I ran into a friend from college in Mumbai.’ He’s quiet for a moment. ‘So I’d say we’re pretty exclusive.’

‘That’s… Not as scary as I thought it would be.’

‘It’s not?’

‘No. It’s kind of normal, right? Why wouldn’t we be.’ He remembers Pepper’s anger over this, over how Tony was so clearly dedicated to no one other than Bruce and wouldn’t own up to it. He kind of gets what she means, now. No matter who he slept with or had a shitty three month relationship with, he always planned on sleeping with Bruce again. That was the only thing he was always sure of and to Pepper it was damning, reason enough to think that he’d never be able to really love her like that. Bruce always hated the idea that he was the only reason Tony and Pepper never got together, but he never did anything to try and get them do date despite that.

Bruce is smiling again and Tony reaches up a little higher to run his thumb along Bruce’s lips.

‘Thanks for calling him,’ he says to the back of Bruce’s head. ‘It really did help.’

‘Did you tell him that?’

‘Do I have to?’

‘You know you do, baby.’

And so he finds Steve in the common living room later and hands him a box of browned butter cookies. It sucked to make them without Steve, but Steve’s stunned smile makes up for that tenfold. ‘These are for me?’, he asks, sounding so delighted that Tony is very suddenly and sharply reminded that Steve grew up during the Great Depression.

‘Yeah. I even made sure no one was here when I gave them to you so you don’t have to share.’

‘Thank you, Tony.’

‘It’s for, um, for hanging out with me, while Bruce was gone.’

‘Oh.’ Steve is still smiling, all sweet and happy. ‘That’s no problem, Tony. No problem at all.’

‘Thanks.’ Tony plops down beside him, grabbing the remote because he knows Steve only put the TV on for white noise and isn’t actually watching anything.

‘These are amazing. You should teach me the recipe sometime.’

Tony puts on !E, because Steve actually likes shitty reality TV, even if he won’t own up to it. ‘I will. The browned butter was kind of cool.’

‘It’s why the kitchen smells so good, isn’t it?’

‘You can smell that still?’

‘Yeah. They didn’t pump me full of super soldier serum just for fun. I can actually do stuff because of it.’

‘Yeah? How far does your hearing go?’

‘Right here? Maybe half the floor? I can’t hear anything on higher floors, because you’ve built this thing pretty well, but if you were in the kitchen right now, I’d be able to hear you breathe.’

‘Can you hear my heartbeat, and like, my intestines and stuff?’

‘Yeah. It was kind of overwhelming in the beginning, but now it’s like white noise. I don’t do so well without it anymore.’

‘Oh.’ That explains why Steve is on the common floors pretty much all the time. His apartment is on a floor of its own, so he won’t be able to hear anybody there. ‘I could move your apartment.’

‘Oh, no, no, Tony, it’s fine. This isn’t some veiled criticism of what you’re providing me with. I’m so grateful to be living here. Seriously.’

‘But it’d be even better if you were closer to everyone, right? It won’t even be that big of a deal. Bruce’s old apartment has a stairwell that leads to mine. If you leave the door to that open, you’ll probably be able to hear us, right?’

‘Tony, it’s good that I can’t. That would be a constant breach of privacy.’

‘I don’t mind. I’m sure Bruce won’t, either. If you feel better, that’s what matters. There’s plenty of soundproofed places for us to go if we need some alone time.’

Steve shakes his head, looking kind of pained. ‘It’s not necessary. Really. Thanks, Tony.’

‘It wouldn’t even take an hour if Thor helped us move your stuff. We could do it right now.’

‘Drop it, Tony,’ he says, more forcefully, in his Captain America voice, the one Tony has never had any sexual fantasies about. ‘I’m good.’

‘Okay. Sorry.’

Normally, in the spirit of being an ass to Steve, he’d say something inappropriate now, about how Steve must definitively know whether Natasha and Clint are fucking or how he must have heard Bruce and Tony fuck in the gym last week, but Steve doesn’t look like he’s in a laughing mood right now and Tony isn’t, either. 

Tony knows, because Bruce has told him numerous times, that Tony is the type of person who shows love to people by taking care of them. He knows that these kinds of offers mean more to him than they probably mean to Steve, that Steve didn’t mean to make Tony feel bad by rejecting him.

‘Hey,’ Steve says a second later, looking at the TV where Botched is playing. ‘Wasn’t she on Drag Race?’ And the tension breaks just like that.

-

‘Do you know if Steve ever sleeps?’, Tony asks Bruce a couple of weeks later. He’s in the lab with Bruce. They’re taking a break on the couch because it’s four am and they’re not nearly done working yet and, more importantly, because Steve brought down really, really good browned butter scones.

Bruce chews thoughtfully for a second before he says, surprised, ‘I don’t.’

‘I’m sure he needs less sleep than us, but he still needs to sleep, right?’

‘Yeah. It’s in his file.’ He rubs his forehead the way he does when he’s tired. ‘After about twenty hours he reported being tired enough to sleep. His sleep cycles seemed to be shorter and normally, two to four hours were enough sleep for him.’

‘You seem so normal around him that sometimes I forget about your gross obsession.’

‘Out of the two of us, I _know_ I’ve spent the least time coming up with sexual fantasies about him.’

‘You’ve spent the most time coming to them, though.’

Bruce laughs, snorts, ‘you got me,’ because Bruce is a gracious loser. Then he sobers. ‘We don’t spend enough time around Steve to know if he spends two hours sleeping, do we? He could be sleeping right now, for all we know.’

‘But we should have seen it at some point, right? He was nodding off after the Battle, and he fell asleep once while you were in Kerala and he was hanging out with me. But both of those times weren’t on purpose.’

‘He always stays up with us after battles, right? In the morning he goes for a run for a few hours, at least. He’s awake for all meals and as far as we know he’s awake after and in between meals, too. We saw him just a bit ago when he brought over the scones and he must have spent most of the evening making them. That doesn’t actually leave that much time unaccounted for.’

‘And now he’s helping Natasha with the whole Winter Soldier thing on top of that.’

They’re quiet for a moment. ‘So he’s not really sleeping,’ Bruce says then.

‘Nope.’

‘Should we talk to him about it?’

‘He’s too stubborn to give a fuck about being _talked to_. I thought maybe we could, you know…’ He trails off, too embarrassed to actually say it. ‘You know, like he did for us.’

Bruce smiles that sweet, surprised smile he sometimes does, the one that makes him look like some handsome animated Disney prince looking at his princess soulmate. ‘You wanna do that for him?’

‘If it helps him sleep more.’

‘It’s late enough right now that you could go find him, see if he needs some help.’

‘You’re not coming with?’

Bruce gives him a small smile. ‘I don’t think that’s necessary.’

‘How isn’t it necessary? On my own I’m probably going to manage to start an argument with him or something.’

‘We’d spook him, if we both showed up.’

‘You should go, then. You get along with him way better than I do.’

‘I don’t think that’s true anymore. You’re close with him, Tony.’

‘So he doesn’t have to owe me a motorcycle.’

‘You’re not that stupid, babe, come on. He likes you.’

Tony goes still, shrugs, tries to keep his face neutral, although he knows Bruce will be able to read his worry so easily. ‘It’s not like I can ever know for sure, right?’ Most of the time he actually believes Steve is his friend, but sometimes, it just seems too good to be true. He’s believed all his life that Steve wouldn’t ever like a person like him and Steve is probably too polite to show dislike to the person who is providing him with gear and housing. It’s entirely possible that he doesn’t like Tony nearly as much as he seems to.

Bruce steps over to him, grabs his hand and Tony looks at the way Bruce holds it instead of at Bruce’s face. ‘Go up to his floor, ask him if you can work on some coding while he sleeps. It might help you know.’

Tony only nods. He’s discovered that him liking to do what Bruce says extends beyond sexual situations. Not all the time, of course, but in situations like these, where Tony is so completely out of his depth, it’s kind of nice to have someone he trusts and who knows him well enough to tell him what he’s supposed to do. He feels like he’s evolved pretty far from not even letting people hand him stuff. He presses a kiss to Bruce’s cheek and goes to find Steve.

Steve is in the common living room, as JARVIS informed him. He’s drawing, puts the pad away hurriedly when Tony shows up, which is unusual. Steve tends to draw what he sees, which is mainly the Avengers themselves. He’s never seemed uncomfortable showing the drawings off at all. He gives ones of Tony to Bruce as gifts, smiles when Bruce tacks them up on the walls in the lab among his messy notes.

‘Hi,’ Steve says, sounding sheepish.

‘Hi,’ Tony says, feels kind of nervous now that Steve is looking at him expectantly.

‘I thought… You know, it’s kind of late and you’ve been working a lot and maybe you wanted… Maybe you want help sleeping? I have some coding to do, so, you know.’

Steve gives him a smile, although it looks kind of off, not as genuine as it should be. Tony can already feel the rejection, a bitter taste in the back of his mouth.

‘I’m not that tired, Tony, but thanks. That’s really nice of you.’

‘When’s the last time you slept?’

‘Oh that was…’ Steve says, too quickly, like he was expecting to know the end to that sentence by the time he got there. He drags a hand across his face. ‘It hasn’t been that long.’

‘So “not that long”, but you can’t remember when?’

Steve shrugs. ‘I’m a busy guy. Can’t remember everything I do now, can I.’

‘Sure you can. You have enhanced intelligence. Come on, off to bed, before you have to admit I’m right.’

Steve smiles, a little more genuine now. ‘Thanks, Tony. It’s really not necessary, though.’

‘Okay. Then I’ll just do my coding right here. Feel free to lie down and close your eyes for a little. Or draw your secret little pictures. I won’t look. But I do kind of wanna know, were you drawing porn?’

‘Oh,’ Steve says. He seems ashamed and Tony is hoping that Captain America is about to admit to him that he’s drawing saucy nudes, but then it turns out to be way worse. ‘I wasn’t… I was drawing your dad. It’s been… therapeutic, drawing the past. But I didn’t want you to think it’s me in any way condoning his behaviour towards you.’

‘Oh. Yeah. That’s okay.’

They’re both quiet for a while. ‘Can I see?’, Tony asks then.

Steve hands him the pad. Tony opens it carefully, pages through pictures of Peggy Carter and the Howling Commandos with a reverence instilled in him since childhood. It’s amazing for him to see these heroes he worshipped as a kid in the mundane situations Steve likes to draw, Barnes nodding off leaning against a tree with a rifle in his lap, Morita winding a telephone cord around his finger as he laughs into the receiver of a payphone dressed in civilian clothes, auntie Carter, hair a mess, looking over a gun lying disassembled across a military cot. Then there’s his dad, younger than Tony has ever known him, smiling with an arm slung around Dernier, and in another drawing, looking over a map with an earnest expression on his face, then another one, grabbing for a gun with fear in his eyes.

‘Sometimes there’d be noises at a base, misfiring cars, someone unloading a truck without care, whatever. Your dad was so fucking scared of all of them. He liked to joke around about the war, pretend it wasn’t that serious, but he never really had the stomach for it. I always liked that about him. He was the only one out of all of us who still reacted normally to violence.’

‘That never went away,’ Tony admits. ‘Anti-war protesters always liked to shove pictures in his face, of people dying because of his weapons. Always made him sick.’ It’s weirdly nice, Tony thinks as he finds another picture of his father among Steve’s drawings, to see his father through Steve’s eyes. This must be the picture Steve had been working on when Tony entered, because it’s not finished, Howard in a tux that tapers off into vaguely sketched lines, hair tousled and collar smudged with lipstick, clearly drunk, smiling happily, genuinely. 

Artistic license, is Tony’s first thought, because he’s a bitter asshole who doesn’t want to believe his dad ever smiled at anyone like that when he never did at his wife or his son. But it’s still nice. Howard looks like a nice person like this, easy to love, to spend time with. 

‘I only realised when I stepped back from this one for a little how much of you I put in here. I think that’s your smile more than his,’ Steve says softly.

Tony must be more tired than he anticipated, with the way his eyes sting at that. He can’t imagine Steve has ever said a nicer thing to him, and Steve is the kind of person who goes out of his way to say nice things. That’s a pretty smile, all happy and sweet. Tony can’t even imagine it on his face, but apparently Steve can.

‘If you can draw all this from memory,’ he says, has to stop to clear his throat because his voice is kind of raw. ‘you can remember the last time you slept.’

‘I don’t want to tell you,’ he says, small, rueful smile on his lips.

‘Thirty hours?’

Steve shakes his head.

‘Forty?’

Steve shakes his head again.

‘Fifty?’

Steve’s face is kind of embarrassed now, but he shakes his head again.

‘Sixty?’

Another shake.

Tony’s eyebrows go up. ‘ _Seventy_?’

‘Give or take,’ Steve says, which probably means it’s a lot closer to eighty than he wants Tony to know.

‘Jesus, Steve. Go to sleep.’ Tony is all for avoiding sleep, but even he knows there’s a point where it just _hurts_ , enhanced or not.

‘Your offer still open?’

‘Yeah. Of course.’

‘Okay. Then I’ll try.’

Tony gives him a smile. ‘I’ll have you admitting I’m right yet.’

Going up to Steve’s room together isn’t as weird as Tony expected. They’re both kind of tense as they wait for the elevator, but then Steve cracks a joke and Tony laughs and everything feels normal again.

Steve disappears into the bathroom with a pair of pyjamas, so Tony gets comfortable on the side of the bed where the pillow isn’t indented, opens up his tablet, puts it in his Stark patented night mode, which doesn’t emit any light but still allows him to read in the dark.

When Steve comes out in flannel pyjama bottoms and a white T-shirt, all he has to do is crawl under the covers and ask J to turn off the lights.

Steve sleeps on his side, one hand tucked under his face like he’s an actual cherub. Tony spends more time than he’d like to admit watching him. It’s probably why he notices so quickly when Steve’s peaceful slumber turns into a nightmare. He shivers, scrunches up his brows, works his jaw. Then he shivers again, then again, until it’s a continuous thing.

Tony pulls the blankets more snugly around Steve, but that doesn’t really make much of a difference, so he shakes Steve awake instead. His skin doesn’t feel cold when Tony touches it, which is a relief. His breathing is ragged and loud when he wakes up, but his eyes blink open and settle on Tony right away.

‘Tony,’ he pants. ‘Fuck. Fuck, that’s cold.’

Tony is already getting under the blankets to hug him tight and Steve sighs. ‘Fuck,’ he repeats. He pulls Tony closer with one strong arm, burying his face in Tony’s neck. ‘You’re so warm,’ he whispers.

He falls asleep again and Tony does, too, jeans still on and everything.

When he wakes up a couple of hours later, Steve is already awake, although he hasn’t pulled out of Tony’s hold yet. ‘Bruce knows you’re here, right?’, Steve asks, voice low.

‘Yeah. We were texting, before I fell asleep.’

‘He doesn’t mind this, that you’re spending the night with someone else while he’s home?’

‘He sent me here.’

Steve is quiet for a long time, trying to wrap his head around that. The reaction he eventually settles on is, ‘ _Why_?’

‘Because we were worried that you weren’t sleeping. And Bruce thought that if the both of us came over, we’d spook you.’

‘You’d… You’d both come here?’

‘Yeah. Of course, Steve. I know better than anyone that not being able to sleep sucks.’

‘Yeah, but, there’s a difference between knowing what I’m going through and sacrificing a night with your soulmate, who sometimes isn’t here for _months_.’

‘I’ll bring him along next time, if it makes you feel any better.’

‘There’s no need for a next time, Tony.’

‘Yeah? So next time you haven’t slept in eighty hours we’re supposed to let you freeze to death?’

‘It’s all in my head. I won’t actually freeze to death.’

‘As if that makes it any better. I don’t ever go off flying into the void, either, but that doesn’t make me sleep any more easily.’

‘You still dream about that? You told me you didn’t.’

‘Oh, yeah, guess I lied.’

Steve pulls him closer again and Tony really should not be focusing on how easily Steve can manhandle him if he wants to get out of bed with his dignity intact. ‘You wanna stay in bed a little longer? Catch some more sleep?’

Tony shakes his head. ‘That’s okay,’ he says as he disentangles himself from Steve. ‘I’m all good.’

Steve is heading for the bathroom and Tony is about to leave to get a change of clothes when Steve says, ‘We really shouldn’t do this again. This is… this is too much.’

‘Yeah? Are you sure?’

‘Yeah. I’m sure. I don’t want this.’

‘Did it help, though?’

‘Yeah. It did. Thank you, Tony.’

‘Okay. See you at breakfast.’

-

Tony keeps more of an eye out now, for any hints that Steve spends time sleeping every day. He’s got a little counter in his head, two days, then there’s a little nap during a movie, then three more days of no sleep at all. It gets worse when Natasha and Steve go to Russia together on their hunt for the Winter Soldier and come back with new files. The files contain a picture of the Soldier, recent, good quality. His face is that of Bucky Barnes. In marker, Steve has circled two scars, one on his chest and one on his upper arm, like some fucked up spot-the-differences game. He has another picture, worn and old, of Barnes smiling at a camera seventy years ago, dog tags resting against his bare chest, the same two scars visible.

By the time Steve reaches the seventy hour mark again, he’s travelled around half the world trying to find someone who knows what happened to the Soldier once he disappeared out of the Red Room’s files in the early nineties. He returns to New York jittery and irritable, refusing to do anything other than pour over the measly stack of files they’ve collected.

Tony tries to talk to him about trying to sleep, but Steve snaps at him, reminding him of back when they were being assholes to each other on the Helicarrier, and Tony backs off.

When they hit the eighty hour mark, Bruce is trying to convince Tony to give it another try, getting Steve to sleep a little and at the ninety hour mark, he actually tries again.

It’s kind of awkward this time. Steve is working at the table in the common living room, fist supporting his head, and he doesn’t even give Tony that apologetic smile he normally does when telling him no.

‘I really don’t want to, Tony,’ he says instead. ‘It’d be a waste of your time.’

‘What are you going to do if we have a mission? You can’t fight if you can barely keep your eyes open.’

Steve sighs. Tony knows that the bad mood is the sleep deprivation and nothing else, but it still hurts when he says, ‘You can be really annoying sometimes, you know that?’

Tony is caught off guard by that. He _knows_ he’s annoying, but he’s always kind of hoped that the team didn’t mind as much anymore now that he was making their gear and paying their bills. He’s hurt but then, in matter of seconds, he’s also really angry, because Steve is Captain America and even if he thinks Tony is an annoying ass, he’s not supposed to say it out loud. ‘Look. JARVIS is gonna call down Bruce for me right now and he’s going to go up to your room with you and hang out while you sleep. He’s got a lot of work to do, so he’s going to stay there with you for at least six hours. And he needs to stay focused, so you better don’t interrupt him by leaving. If you’re rude to him at any point, say anything hurtful to him, his boyfriend is going to put on a flying suit of armour and beat the shit out of you.’

Steve clenches his jaw. ‘You’re proving my point,’ he says through another sigh. His hands are shaking, Tony notices when he stands. ‘I’ll already go up to my room, okay?’

Bruce comes by the living room before he goes up to Steve’s room, just to press kisses along Tony’s jaw while Tony tells him Steve is in a bad mood.

‘I’m gonna kick him if he’s mean to you,’ Tony ads.

Bruce pulls back to smile at him. ‘Thanks,’ he says. He presses a kiss to Tony’s lips. ‘I’ll go now, yeah.’ He kisses Tony again, longer this time, and then leaves for the elevator.

Tony goes back to the lab, feels like sleeping isn’t really worth it if he’s gotta do it all alone. Bruce texts him later, to say that Steve is asleep and Tony wonders if Bruce felt this lonely a couple of weeks ago when it was Tony texting him from Steve’s bed.

-

Things get better after that. Steve is ashamed and apologetic, taking two hours out of his Winter Soldier research time to make Tony a panna cotta with spun sugar decorations, a red fruit coulis, almond crisps and homemade ice cream. It’s really nice, takes some of the sting out of the things Steve said. Despite that, Tony still feels tense a few hours later, when he’s keeping his mouth shut so he won’t annoy Steve while Tony helps him out with some decryption software.

They’re in the lab, which is never usually this quiet. Bruce is working out how the cryo tanks they’ve found in one of the Red Room facilities might work, so he’s not there. Tony made the bots go to their docking stations because he’s noticed they always play around with Steve like overgrown dogs. He’s even turned off the music and he’s not really saying much to fill up the silence, either.

He’s not sure what he’s doing that triggers it, but Steve leans back from the display for a moment to look at Tony, gives him this sad little frown and then pulls him into a hug before Tony even knows what’s going on. He hugs Tony tightly, the way he sometimes does at night when he’s dreamt about everyone he knows and loves suddenly being seventy years older or dead.

‘I don’t think you’re annoying at all, Tony. You know that right? I was lying, because I knew if I said that, you’d leave and I wanted you to leave because I was scared to go to sleep and I knew that if you asked again, I’d probably go with you. It’s okay if you’re mad at me for being a dick, but please don’t believe anything I said.’

Tony is hugging him back without even really thinking about it. It should be weird, two grown men hugging like this, but it isn’t, feels so fucking natural. It kind of reminds him of how he feels saying “I love you” to Bruce, worried it’s going to be embarrassing until he actually says it and it just feels good.

Still, he pulls away first, straightens himself and gets back to work. He tries to talk a little more after that, just so Steve won’t worry he’s taking the whole “you’re annoying” thing to heart.

After Steve has the hang of the decryption software, he’s willing to go to sleep, which is good. It’s been forty hours at least that he’s gone without, but he’s getting better about letting Bruce and Tony make him try to sleep, at least. Tony shoots a text to Bruce before he puts on a pair of pyjamas and settles under the covers for a nap with Steve.

-

The Winter Soldier turns out to be in HYDRA’s hands, according to a new lead they find. The knowledge that HYDRA hasn’t disappeared since the forties is a new addition to the list of things no one knows how to deal with. Steve’s nightmares get worse, but either Tony or Bruce is always there to shake him out of them. He travels a lot, though, has more contacts that could lead him to HYDRA than to the Red Room. It gives him purpose, but whenever he’s in New York, he doesn’t have much to do except for going over information he’s gone over a million times before and so Bruce makes it a rule that Steve doesn’t do any work for the Winter Soldier search at the Tower. They help keep him occupied with game nights and combat training, even manage to coax Steve into having some Asgardian mead every now and again. He keeps insisting that he has to be ready to go at all times, that it’s not worth supressing his abilities even slightly just to relax for a little.

Tony can imagine that being the sole result of an incredibly expensive government experiment kind of makes you feel like you owe it to the world to be ready to serve it at all times and that attitude has only gotten worse in Steve since finding out HYDRA is still around.

The mead helps, though, and in a few hours, Steve has relaxed considerably, sinking back into his armchair as he listens to the others talk.

Tony isn’t paying much attention, watching Steve and Bruce enjoy themselves. He has no idea when the topic landed on soulmarks, only that Bruce pulls the arm he has around Tony a little tighter, in a way that Tony would interpret as encouraging in any other context. ‘We aren’t soulmates,’ he says, voice level.

‘You’re not?’, Steve asks, a little louder than he would sober. He looks confused.

‘Love exists outside of soulmate bonds, you know,’ Tony mumbles.

‘I know,’ Steve says. ‘I just… Does neither of you have a mark?’

Bruce gives him that squeeze around his waist again and it’s confusing. The gesture doesn’t make any sense in this conversation. It’s supposed to be a sign of support, and Tony has no idea what he means by it right now.

‘Mine was removed,’ Bruce says easily.

‘What did it look like?’, Clint asks.

Bruce shakes his head. ‘I never saw it. I have no idea.’

‘Fuck.’

‘Yeah.’

‘How about you, Tony?’

‘I don’t have one,’ he lies. Everyone just nods. Steve still seems confused, but he doesn’t say anything, and Tony hopes he won’t bring it up later.

-

Of course he does bring it up later. They’re alone in the kitchen, Steve cutting butter into small pieces and Tony separating eggs for cookie dough that needs to rest overnight. 

He’s kind of expecting it when Steve says, ‘So I just wanted to say, about you guys not being soulmates…’ He takes a breath, waits for Tony to nod before he goes on. ‘I’m not… I’m not a homophobe, if that’s what you didn’t tell me you don’t have each other’s mark. I know gay marriage was only allowed in my day when you were soulmates and I know… I know my generation must have left a pretty bad impression, with how homophobic they were, how hard they made it for things to get better now. But even back then there were people who knew better. I don’t know if you know anything about the kind of neighbourhood I lived in back in Brooklyn, but the only straight people on our block were trans, pretty much. You wouldn’t live there if you were a homophobe, they’d chase you out. We _did_ chase people out. I’ve always supported same-sex relationships, soulmates or not.’

‘Oh, really?’ This was Bruce’s favourite argument, back when Steve was still missing in the ice and they speculated about an old legend’s sex life for fun. Tony doesn’t know shit about Steve’s neighbourhood, but Bruce does, is all into LGBT history the way Tony, an openly bisexual celebrity, should be, too. Sure, Tony pumps a steady stream of money into a couple of charities that help LGBT people, but the few times he’s been asked to speak on the subject by some organisation or another, he’s shamefully declined, not even knowing what they thought he’d have to say.

Digressions aside, Bruce liked to argue that Steve must have been gay, living in a neighbourhood like that. Tony always accused him of wishful thinking so he could get back to his detailed description of the kinds of things Steve got up to with the USO girls, one hand wrapped around Bruce’s cock.

‘Yeah, so two men who are together but aren’t soulmates, it’s really not a problem to me. That’s… You know, that’s something I’ve done myself.’

‘Yeah?’ Tony isn’t jealous of some unnamed guy who slept with Steve seventy years ago. He isn’t. ‘Aren’t you all old-fashioned about saving yourself for your soulmate?’

‘It was the war, Tony. People died without ever meeting their soulmate. Me especially, I didn’t really think I was gonna live long. I was sick and way too poor to get better.’

Tony raises his hands, then returns them to his bowl because they’re dripping raw egg whites. ‘I’m not accusing,’ he says. ‘I’m all for having a little fun before you settle down with your soulmate. Hell, who even needs a soulmate, huh?’

‘They’re probably dead now, anyways. I don’t think fate accounts for seventy-year coma’s.’

Tony shrugs. ‘Some hundred year old dude might still be a good fuck. Don’t knock it ‘till you try it.’

Steve laughs. ‘You haven’t. Please tell me you haven’t.’

‘There’s a couple of stories I could tell you about times I almost did. All of them take place at the Playboy mansion, for some reason.’

‘The Playboy mansion is a made up place, right?’

Tony laughs, delighted. ‘You’re either going to love this or really, really hate it.’

-

Tony has helped design the apartment Bucky Barnes is going to be living in if (or, as Steve has insisted since day one, _when_ ) they manage to bring him in and rehabilitate him, but Tony still doesn’t see it coming when Steve and Natasha show up with the world’s deadliest assassin in tow.

He’s way more docile than Tony expected. He seems to have decided that Natasha is his new handler and does whatever she says to him. It’s not ideal, but it’s safe, that she can order him around. There are still incidents, most notably one that made Bruce Hulk out, but it’s nothing a couple hundred thousand dollars can’t fix.

It’s been stressful, though, especially for Steve and Natasha, and so Tony decides to fly all of them, even the assassin, out to his Malibu mansion for some much-needed vacation time.

Of course he doesn’t really take any time off, because it isn’t _his_ brainwashed best friend who came back from the dead, so he doesn’t need it. He drops by for breakfast and dinner, sticks around in the evenings, but spends his days at the California SI branch, taking on a couple of new R&D projects while he’s here.

Bruce and Steve manage to bully him into at least taking Sunday off and so Sunday he wakes up beside both of them with a disturbingly empty day ahead of him.

It’s new, waking up like this, all three in the same bed. It started with Steve noting at the beginning of the week that all the beds in the Malibu mansion are bigger than the beds in New York. He’d been a lot shyer when he added, just to Tony, although he knew Bruce could hear, too, from where he was drying the last of the dishes that Steve had washed. ‘You remember what you said when you first… When you first slept over? That you’d both…’ He doesn’t finish the sentence, shakes his head. ‘That I’d get spooked,’ he says instead.

Tony only nods, not sure what to say. Maybe Steve is going to make fun of him or something for thinking Steve and Bruce would want something like that in the first place.

‘If the bed’s bigger maybe it won’t be, you know, as spooky.’

Tony smiles, surprised that Steve Rogers would ever ask for anything at all, just because he wants it.

‘Bruce, are you tired?’, he asks without looking away from Steve.

‘I could sleep.’

‘So could I,’ Tony says. ‘And I’m pretty sure we’ve just been offered a bed.’

Steve smiles, still looking kind of nervous, and the three of them head off to bed.

They haven’t slept apart a single night since and Steve is ridiculously energetic on six hours of rest a night. He spends a lot of his time swimming, which Tony only discovers on that Sunday, when he’s drinking his morning coffee with some of the other Avengers and they can all watch Steve out the window, where the sea stretches out before them, a small pink line going back and forth. That’s pretty much the point at which Tony decides he’s going to spend the next few hours by the beach. He might as well get a tan while he makes sure Steve doesn’t go missing in another ocean for another seventy years.

He codes, mostly. He’s been beta testing a couple of more advanced house cleaning robots while they’ve been away and there are a million bugs to fix. It’s not the most important work ever, but it will make everyone’s lives just a little bit easier, so he tries not to feel too bad about wasting so much time on it. Steve comes out of the water after a few hours and reads in the beach chair beside Tony’s. They make conversation, quiet and easy and Tony does _not_ watch water droplets run down Steve’s pecs. He has a boyfriend and although that boyfriend has dirty talked about Steve to make Tony come more than either Bruce or Tony would care to admit, now that Steve isn’t on ice anymore, Tony is pretty sure those thoughts are supposed to be gone. He does pay too much attention to Steve’s soulmark, though. It’s not the first time that he’s seen it since Steve waking up from his seventy year sleep, but quick glimpses don’t compare to being able to look at it uninterrupted in the bright sunlight. He hates how happy he feels seeing his mark on Steve’s chest.

Bruce comes by later to coax Tony into the water. Tony likes to be in the water, but he doesn’t really like to have the arc reactor exposed. It helps to have Bruce there, though, and Steve, too. They’re both so fucking strong, wouldn’t let anything happen to a weak civilian like him. He’s got a suit on standby, too, of course, but he’s been through a few too many fights where the suit didn’t get there on time.

Bruce is goading Steve into swimming as fast as he can, pretending it’s a competition when all three of them know this is just Bruce liking to get first-hand data on Captain America’s enhanced abilities. Steve always seems surprised by Bruce’s scientific interest in him, but he preens under the attention and actually bothers to show off, exerting himself enough that he’s sweaty and panting by the time Bruce is satisfied.

Tony is content just to watch from the side lines, sitting back in the shallow water and enjoying the way it cools his skin.

He’s still there when Bruce gets out of the water, stopping by Tony long enough to press a kiss to his forehead. Tony always feels overwhelmed when he does that. It’s such a specific gesture, one he’s never gotten from anyone else before and it means more to him than he ever would have expected. It’s a special occasion kind of kiss, when Bruce is emotional after a fight or a battle and it’s strange to receive it now. Bruce looks kind of off, too. He’s smiling, but not in a genuine way.

When Tony frowns, Bruce tries a little harder to make his smile look real. ‘Nothing you need to worry about. Go tire out Steve some more, or we’re not sleeping again until Friday.’

Tony trusts him and so he tries not to worry.

He’s still leaning back, enjoying the sun when Steve comes up to him. He’s always like this after showing off to Bruce, all flushed and cheerful, telling Tony his stats because he knows Tony will be impressed. Now, halfway through his sentence, his smile fades into a confused frown, eyes on something under the water. Tony is afraid for a second that his swim trunks came off or something, but when he looks down, he realises it’s way worse than that. 

The patches he uses to cover up his mark have a limit to their water-resistance. None of the ones that stayed on under water had the right texture and he figured, since he only ever got in the water to take a four minute shower, he wouldn’t have to worry about it. He’s sure he’s got some of the waterproof ones lying around somewhere, but using the other ones is a habit by now.

‘Oh,’ he says dumbly, getting up.

Steve’s expression shifts and now he just looks defeated. He looks away from the soulmark, his mark, the one that’s mirrored on his own chest, to look at Tony’s face. ‘I wasn’t supposed to see that, was I?’

Tony shakes his head. It’s strange to have this dreaded conversation like this, with the sun beating down on them, knee-deep in the Pacific ocean.

They’re both quiet for a moment.

‘Does Bruce know?’, Steve asks.

‘No.’

‘Are you going to tell him?’

Tony shakes his head. 

Steve nods curtly, like that’s all he needed to know. He looks the way he does when he’s strategizing for a battle, all calculating and focused. ‘I’m sorry, for probably making this harder on you than it should have been, by, you know, the sleep thing.’

Tony shakes his head, not sure what this means, what Steve is even saying. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Steve wasn’t supposed to know. He’s going to hate Tony. ‘We’ll… We’ll figure this out, yeah? Nothing has to change. Things were going great before, right?’

Steve nods. He’s almost robotic in how stiff he is, how earnest. ‘I don’t know if I’ll… If I can go back to the way things were.’

Tony nods. That’s fair. That makes sense. It’s not the rejection he’s prepared for all his life. It’s not. ‘I’m gonna… I’ll see you later, yeah?’, he says, because Steve kind of looks like he needs space.

Tony walks back to the house, numb, while Steve swims further into the water behind him.

He goes to get a new patch first, covers his mark, gets properly dried off and gets dressed, goes to his workshop, because he doesn’t know what else to do. The workshop here is different, has all of the projects he was stuck on when he left for New York. He’s made progress on a few of them, in the little downtime he has had, but now he just sits down by the box with all of his dad’s old stuff, by the Stark Expo model, all exactly where he left them. He got started on categorising everything in the box at some point last year and now he gets back to it. It’s simple, mindless work, jotting down short descriptions of each item, having JARVIS scan them so he has a 3D model of each saved to use in New York, seeing if there’s anything hidden in any of the stuff, another new element for Tony to synthesise.

He’s still there when Bruce finds him a couple of hours later, turning a screwdriver from the box over in his hands.

‘How’d it go?’, Bruce asks.

‘How did what go?’

‘Steve finding out about your mark.’

Tony stiffens, surprised.

‘I know he’s your soulmate, Tony. Sometimes, if that patch you put over your mark stays under water long enough, it comes off.’

Tony frowns, finally looking up to look at Bruce’s face. ‘How long have you known?’

‘There was… let me see, Seoul in 2001, that fucking sailboat in ‘04, Cannes in 2010. In Seoul I thought I’d imagined it, on the sailboat I figured it was just really similar, but in Cannes, I got a good look at it. Steve’s mark is in his file, Tony. I’ve been able to draw it from memory since I was sixteen. I know you have it.’

‘Is that why you wanted to go swimming so badly in Cannes?’

‘It was one of the reasons.’

‘And why you wanted me to go swimming today, so that he’d see?’

Bruce nods.

That hurts. Tony isn’t sure why. Bruce is right to force him to tell Steve about his mark. It’s not fair to Bruce that he has to settle for someone else’s soulmate while that person’s soulmate shares a house and, occasionally, a bed with them. Tony has gotten carried away, getting too close to Steve, and it’s only fair that Bruce puts a stop to that now. It still feels like a betrayal, though, that Bruce would force him to confront a secret he never wanted to have in the first place. Tony does what he usually does when he feels hurt, ignores it and moves on.

‘So what are we supposed to do now?’, he asks.

‘I think that’s pretty clear, Tony.’

‘It’s not. I’m not gonna break up with you.’

‘He’s your _soulmate_ , Tony. It would be fucking ridiculous to be with anyone else.’

‘It would be ridiculous not to be with you.’

‘We’re… We’ve been great. I’ve never had as much fun or felt as much love or enjoyed life as much as I did with you. I’m grateful to you for that. But that doesn’t mean it has to last. We’ve had a good run. But that’s it. That’s how relationships go. They end.’

‘Do you want this to end?’

‘Of course not. Everything I said is still true, that this is for life, for me, but I don’t think it matters when your soulmate is right here. He’s always going to come first for you, whether you want him to or not. And I’d never be able to forgive myself for coming between a bond like that. I’ve been trying, because I figured there was a reason you hadn’t told him, yet, but I couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t be good for either of us, to stay together.’

‘I want to stay together. You want to stay together. That’s it, that’s what matters.’

‘No. What matters is, do you want to be with Steve?’

Bruce doesn’t need Tony to answer to know that Tony does. Tony knows that, but that’s not a relevant question. ‘I don’t think that’s an actual option.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I don’t think he wants that.’

‘The guy who’s only slept in the last three months if you were around to hold him? You don’t think he wants you?’  
Tony shakes his head. That isn’t even true. Steve has slept just as well with only Bruce around.

Bruce sounds sad when he says, ‘You really believe that.’ He’s quiet for a moment, breathes in deeply, then sighs. ‘Let’s take some time to think this over, yeah?’, he says, already heading for the door. ‘Decisions like these shouldn’t be made lightly.’

Tony nods. Time is good. Time means Bruce isn’t leaving him, yet. He spends the rest of the day in the workshop. No one bugs him for not having lunch or dinner with the team, probably because he made JARVIS promise them he ate on his own, although he didn’t. He’s considering flying back to New York, but that seems pointless. They’re all supposed to go back tomorrow, anyways, so it would only help him avoid Steve for half a day. He could feign an SI emergency that he has to stay in Malibu for, but that just seems childish.

He’s putting off going to bed because he’s not sure what bed he’s supposed to sleep in. All of his stuff is in the room he shares with Steve and Bruce, but he doesn’t think either of them wants to share a bed with him right now. By one am he figures he can just go grab his toothbrush and pyjamas before either of them goes to sleep, but when he gets to the room, it seems Steve had the same idea, because he’s heading for the bathroom when Tony comes in.

‘Hi,’ Tony manages, all quiet and stupid.

‘Hi,’ Steve echoes. ‘I was just getting my stuff.’

‘So was I.’

‘You and Bruce can just stay here. It’s no problem.’

‘I think he’s trying to break up with me.’

‘What? Did he find out about the mark?’

Tony nods. ‘He wants me to be with you.’

‘He can’t, he – you belong together.’

‘He thinks the mark is proof we don’t.’

‘That’s bullshit, -‘

Which is when Bruce enters, probably to get his stuff and sneak off quietly, like they’d all been planning to do.

‘Oh,’ he says, sounding impossibly neutral. ‘You guys figured it out?’

‘No,’ Tony says right away. ‘We were both just getting our stuff.’

‘So all three of us are going to sleep alone tonight?’, Bruce asks mildly.

‘Not if you just kip with Tony,’ Steve mumbles. 

Stubborn asses, the both of them. Tony kind of feels like he should leave and let them self-sacrifice back and forth into eternity, but he knows that won’t happen. As stubborn as they both are, they’re also both tactical masterminds. Tony knows that Bruce especially already has fifteen different solutions floating around in his head and is just waiting for an opportunity to implement one of them. Tony would like to wait and see which one it will be.

Bruce shakes his head. ‘That’s not… He’s your soulmate.’

‘You’ve been together for years, for decades. Back in my day a soulmate was supposed to be someone you were responsible for, someone you took care of. I’m not going to let anyone hurt him, not even you.’

‘Don’t you think not having you will hurt him?’

‘He has me, just not in the traditional sense. That’s not a bad thing.’

‘Kiss him,’ Bruce says.

Tony’s eyes immediately snap to Bruce’s face. That’s not quite the outcome he’d expected from Bruce.

‘I’m not gonna cheat on you,’ Tony says. ‘And I’m not breaking up with you.’ He hasn’t really felt the need to say anything so far because Steve and Bruce both know these two things and Tony doesn’t have anything more to say than that.

‘I’m the one saying it’s okay. That kind of negates the cheating. Come on, Steve, do it. I know you want to kiss your soulmate.’

Tony looks back at Steve, who is studying Bruce, looking so fucking vulnerable Tony doesn’t know what to do for a second. Steve must see something in Bruce’s face that convinces him, because he turns towards Tony, considering. He raises a hand to Tony’s shoulder, slow, careful. ‘Is this…’, he starts.

Tony, not sure any sound would come out of his mouth if he spoke right now, nods.

‘Make it good,’ Bruce adds. ‘He likes when you play around with his hair. Even likes when you pull it a little. When you bite his lip.’

Steve leans in slowly, one had going up to Tony’s hair, pulling slightly. Tension ramps up when their lips meet and then completely dissipates when Tony kisses Steve back. It’s a battle, of course, with the two of them. Tony pushes into Steve’s space, holding on to his shoulders, dominating the kiss with a few of the tricks he has up his sleeve. Steve gives as good as he gets, gaining back some control by pulling Tony’s head back by his hair, limiting Tony’s range of motion. When they pull apart, they’re both out of breath. Tony expected fireworks, swooning, anything, but kissing Steve feels just like kissing Bruce, hot and comforting and like nothing else matters.

‘Now, was that so hard?’, Bruce says, still by the door, watching.

‘I feel like there’s harder things in the room, if you know what I mean,’ Tony manages, voice low. He moves his thigh up against Steve’s erection where he feels it pressing against him and Steve presses his lips against Tony’s neck to stifle a groan.

‘Does this turn you on, Steve, holding him, kissing him?’, Bruce asks.

‘Yeah,’ Steve says against Tony’s neck. ‘Turns him on, too.’

Tony looks at Bruce over Steve’s shoulder and Bruce gives him a smile. ‘Undress him, Steve,’ he says.

Steve looks up at Bruce, frowning.

‘Do it,’ Bruce says. It should be funny how easily Steve follows orders, but mostly it’s just hot. He fumbles with Tony’s zipper, pretty much lifts him up to help him out of his jeans and underwear and then drags his T-shirt over his head. The mark is covered again, and Steve runs his thumb over the patch.

Tony shivers. Leans back a little because he wants Steve to see him, to look at him.

‘Lay him on the bed,’ Bruce orders. ‘Be sweet with him, even when you’re rough. He likes being kissed.’

Steve throws Tony onto the bed and goes right after him, kissing up his neck to his lips. He bites his lip and Tony starts to grind up against him, arms grasping the sheets.

‘I’m not in a mood for taking things slow, do you mind that, Steve? There’s lube in the nightstand. Take your clothes off, then get it.’

Steve undresses one-handed, still leaning over Tony, looking into his eyes. Then he gets back to kissing Tony’s neck. When Bruce reminds him to get the lube, he lifts his lips long enough to speak. ‘Come bring it to me.’

Bruce hesitates across the room. Tony wants to say something, get him to come closer, but he’s kind of distracted by Steve biting Tony’s neck softly. Bruce steps into his view after only half a minute, which is kind of impressive. Bruce isn’t usually quick to make up his mind on these kinds of things. Tony reaches for his wrist when it comes within reach when Bruce hands Steve the lube.

‘Stay,’ Steve says against Tony’s skin. ‘Sit with us.’

Bruce does, wordlessly pulls away a pillow to sit by Tony’s head. Steve lets Tony move enough to put his head in Bruce’s lap and Tony gets comfortable, feeling so relaxed with the two of them taking care of him.

He’s so busy staring into Bruce’s eyes that he gasps in surprise when Steve slides a lubed finger into him.

‘He likes getting too much too fast,’ Bruce says, smoothing back Tony’s hair. ‘But I like making him wait for it. Opening him up slowly. He’s not gonna need much today, though. You should have seen him yesterday. He was gaping.’

Tony likes this kind of thing. It turns him on when Bruce talks about him like he isn’t there, fucks him like he’s just a thing, nothing else. He doesn’t really care anymore if there’s anything wrong with that or not, but he has no idea how Steve will react. Especially not when Bruce is going to be bringing up _gaping_ in the first half hour of all of this. He’s definitely not planning on taking things slow with Steve’s introduction into 21st century kink. Steve looks up from where his finger is disappearing into Tony to look at Bruce. ‘Yeah?’, he asks, clearly very affected by the way things are going. ‘Gaping?’

‘He likes… He likes being fucked for a long time, even after he’s come. Has a collection of toys he uses for that. After I was done with him, I fucked him with a dildo, a ridiculously big one.’

Steve adds a second finger in a rough movement that makes Tony gasp again. ‘How long did you fuck him for, with the dildo?’

‘Two hours. I’m sure he could have gone for longer, but we had to get back to work.’

‘You were in the workshop?’

‘Yeah.’

‘D’you plug him up?’

‘Not this time.’ Steve adds a third finger. Tony is getting impatient by now, way too turned on by the way they’re talking about him, but Steve doesn’t give him any more, doesn’t even move his fingers, just focuses on his conversation with Bruce with three fingers up inside Tony. ‘He’s got some pretty plugs, though. You can pick one out for him to wear later, if you want.’

‘I’d like that,’ Steve says, finally starts moving his fingers again. ‘Hope he has one that will still fit.’

He adds a fourth finger and Tony lets out an embarrassing sound. He’s sinking quickly, already feeling quiet and mellow and not sure how he got there so fast. Maybe that’s a soulmate thing, that Steve can turn him on like that. Maybe it’s his inexplicable love for threesomes rearing its head. Tony thinks it’s kind of funny, that despite the ridiculous amount of threesomes he’s had and despite how much Bruce likes to enable him in threesome-related fantasies, this is the first time they actually have a threesome with each other.

‘He’s ready,’ Bruce says, not even a minute later. Bruce must be feeling it, too, so turned on that he’s not even going to tease Tony a little bit. ‘Fuck him.’

Steve lines up with four fingers still buried inside Tony and then just pushes in right as he pulls his fingers out, the transition between fingers and cock so fucking smooth. Tony and Bruce have speculated about this, back when Steve was still a myth lost in the Arctic, about his sex life. Tony thinks this is pretty definitive proof that Steve has fucked men before, even after he’s already mostly admitted that to Tony a few weeks ago.

Tony moans, back arching. ‘Fuck,’ he says, voice thick. ‘Fuck, Bruce.’ He reaches out blindly until Bruce grabs his wrist. ‘He’s big.’ He’s already slurring, words sticking to his mouth. ‘Deep.’

‘He’s gonna fuck you so hard,’ Bruce says, voice rough. ‘I already know you’re going to cry.’ He looks to Steve, who only starts thrusting when Bruce gives him a nod.

Bruce gathers both of Tony’s hands in his to help ground him a little, uses his other hand to stroke his chest. ‘There,’ he says, when Steve thrusts, hard, and Tony moans.

Steve’s rhythm is slow and deep, but his gaze is even more intense. He’s looking at Tony like he’s trying to commit every part of him to memory.

‘What does he look like right now? Tell him.’

‘You look… You look like a dream come to life. Always felt guilty, you know, dreaming about fucking you. Been wanting to do this for so long, Tony. You have no idea.’ He kisses Tony and it’s only better because Bruce’s hand is in Tony’s hair again.

Tony kind of would have figured that sleeping with his soulmate would feel different, but with Bruce right there, it feels almost the same as sex with him always does. Steve fits so well into their usual dynamic that all of the nerves and embarrassment he worried about are absent.

Steve stills for a moment, shifting his hips, pushing forward a little, shifting his hips again, until Tony moans, pressing his face into Bruce’s jeans to stifle it.

Steve starts thrusting again, smiling, hitting his prostate every time and Bruce grabs Tony’s chin to make him look at Steve, instead of hiding his face against Bruce’s thigh. Somehow, all the little ways in which Bruce dominates him are even hotter with Steve there to see them.

‘Kiss him,’ Bruce says. ‘His neck, pull his hair.’ Steve does as he’s told, grabbing the hair at the back of Tony’s head to pull his head backwards so he can kiss Tony’s neck, biting down to make Tony moan. Tony arches his back and Steve moves his arms to lift him, hold him up as he continues to fuck into him. The new angle is intense, deeper and rough, and Tony’s moans grow louder.

‘Do you think he can come like this?’, Steve asks. He’s looking at Bruce, rhythm not changing and Tony doesn’t know why that’s as hot as it is. Bruce has been pretty involved this whole time, ordering Steve around and stroking Tony’s hair, but Steve looks like he might touch Bruce now and the thought of that, of the two of them together, makes Tony even more aroused.

‘We’ll see,’ Bruce says.

‘Maybe he needs some help.’ Steve shifts slightly and Tony can feel Bruce behind him. With the next thrust forward, Steve manages to fully settle him against Bruce, who accommodates for him easily and lets Tony lie back against his chest. It’s so easy, between the two of them. One of Bruce’s hands finds Tony’s nipple, the other goes down to grab his balls. He’s not gentle, exactly, and Tony moans, trying to stay alert enough to gauge Steve’s reaction.

He seems fascinated by it, the way Tony cries out when Bruce twists his fingers and pain shoots through Tony’s chest. His eyes shift to Bruce for a moment, like he’s more interested in Bruce hurting Tony than in Tony being hurt and then he darts down to kiss Tony, right when Bruce pinches his other nipple. Tony moans into Steve’s mouth when Bruce’s other hand finally finds his cock and Steve, impossibly, fucks him harder. Tony really is getting close to crying, with how overwhelming this is, the stretch and the shocking pleasure of Steve hitting his prostate so hard it also kind of hurts, Bruce right there starting to whisper filthy shit into his ear as he jerks Tony’s cock and digs his nails into Tony’s chest, dragging down.

‘Fuck,’ Tony manages and it sounds like a sob.

‘You’re doing so well,’ Bruce whispers into his ear, ‘You’re perfect just like this, letting go for us. So beautiful, you fit so perfectly. So perfect just for us.’

Tony doesn’t think Bruce ever makes all that much sense when they’re at this point, but it always gets the job done. Tony spills over Bruce’s hand as he comes, Steve pressing kisses to Tony’s chest, speeding up. He looks up at Bruce briefly, doesn’t stop or slow down because Bruce gives him a nod that Tony feels against the side of his head because they’re still pressed close.

Tony does cry then, oversensitive and overwhelmed with it, caught between the two of them, Bruce continuing his sweet praises, Steve panting against his neck, so ridiculously close to Bruce even though they still haven’t touched, haven’t kissed like Tony so desperately wants them to.

Steve comes, rhythm stuttering until he stills inside Tony. Tony runs a hand through Steve’s hair, which is sweaty and dishevelled in a way it only ever is when he has just gotten out of bed.

He looks up at Tony, smiling all happy and exhausted, the way he did that time Bruce made him run so hard he broke a treadmill. He kisses Tony on both cheeks, then wipes his tears. ‘You did so great,’ he says and then his eyes flick to Bruce, face going vulnerable in a split second.

Bruce presses a kiss to the back of Tony’s head. ‘I’ll get going,’ he says, moving like he’s going to shimmy out from under Tony’s weight.

‘No,’ Steve says, too fast. ‘You’re not supposed to… You haven’t even gotten a turn.’

Bruce shakes his head. ‘That’s not what this is. That’s not how this works.’

‘Why not? We’re all adults. We’re all friends. I don’t mind if you’re with Tony, you don’t seem to mind that I’m with him, too. That’s called polyamory, right?’

Tony reaches behind himself until he finds Bruce’s hand and grabs onto it tight, trying to convey how much he wants him to be here.

‘You’re his soulmate.’

‘I’ve known him for about five percent of the time you’ve known him.’ Steve presses a kiss to Tony’s shoulder and pulls out. ‘Even if you don’t want a turn, you’ll still sleep here, right?’

‘If you don’t we’re not making you those browned butter cookies you like anymore,’ Tony ads.

Bruce looks between them, incredulous. ‘You’re bribing me.’

‘If that’s what it takes we are,’ Steve says.

‘You deserve each other,’ Bruce grumbles, but when Steve gets up to get a washcloth, he doesn’t try to leave.

‘Want me to blow you?’, Tony asks while Bruce reaches for his stomach and gently starts to pry off the patch that covers the mark. Tony ignores how vulnerable that makes him feel and lets him.

Bruce presses his forehead against the back of Tony’s neck. He’s pretty sweaty, too. ‘I don’t think an orgasm can top what I just saw.’

Tony smiles. ‘Did you like it?’

‘You know I did.’

‘That’s reason enough not to leave, right?’

Bruce sighs. ‘Let’s not talk about that for now, yeah?’

Steve exits the bathroom a few moments later with the washcloth, probably lingered there until they finished talking. The silence in the room is pleasant as he cleans Tony up and then shoos Bruce and Tony off the bed so he can strip off the sheets.

Tony tugs at Bruce’s clothes while they wait, until Bruce is dressed a little more appropriately in just his underwear, cock still hard. Tony cups it as he leans in for a kiss and Bruce grinds against his hand. It’s slow and easy, something they’ve done a thousand times before. Tony wraps his hand around Bruce’s cock, jerks it just right, their kisses lazy and messy as Bruce gasps into his mouth. He comes quickly, riled up from watching one of his old favourite fantasies come to life like that.

When they pull apart so Tony can go and find the washcloth, Steve is watching them from the doorway with a new set of sheets under his arm.

It all feels so natural, the little evening routine they’ve settled into over the last week. Tony cleans up Bruce’s stomach and his own hand, Steve and Bruce change the sheets. They all brush their teeth and wash their faces in a weird, messy little dance around the bathroom, which feels a lot smaller with three grown men in it. Tony applies a ridiculous amount of creams while Bruce and Steve get settled in the bed, leaving a space between them for Tony. Tony still wishes they’d touch each other, even if it was just a brush of fingers against a shoulder, anything.

He gets comfortable in between them, presses his back into Bruce’s front obnoxiously until Bruce wraps his arms around him and then grabs Steve’s hands to guide them to his hips, one finding his soulmark a little higher up seemingly automatically. That they end up resting against Bruce’s stomach is purely coincidental and does not make Tony’s stomach flutter.

He gets goodnight kisses from both of them and he’s not sure how he ever got this lucky, even if it’s only for a night.

-

He expects the morning to be tense, but everything still feels normal when they wake up. They drifted apart in the night, overheated from the cuddling, but Steve is already awake when Tony wakes up and presses close to him, kissing the top of his head. Tony tangles their hands together, tugs at them until Steve gets the hint and lets Tony rest both their hands against Bruce’s chest. They’re both quiet, watching him sleep.

‘He’s gonna keep trying to leave,’ Tony says.

‘We’re not gonna let him,’ Steve says, steady and sure.

‘Do you wanna kiss him?’

‘He doesn’t want that, Tony.’

Tony knows Steve is right. Kissing your boyfriend’s soulmate is probably not a fun activity. Tony is gonna have to be mindful of that, that for Bruce this isn’t all fun and games. They had plenty of fantasies, back when Steve was still in the ice, of Bruce and Steve kissing, fucking, but now that Steve is really here, things must be different for Bruce.

Bruce’s face scrunches up and Steve and Tony reach out at the same time to wake him, both knowing what Bruce  
looks like when he’s having a nightmare and knowing how bad they can get when allowed to progress.

Bruce is quiet for most of the morning, shaken by the nightmare. He lets Tony pull him into hugs and eats the plate of fried eggs, toast and fried mushrooms Steve fixes for him. They pack, hang out with the team while they wait for everyone to be ready to board the Quinjet and fly back to New York.

Tony and Bruce disappear into the workshop pretty much right away, only coming out to have dinner with the team in the evening. Nothing really feels different, even here, not even when Steve turns in at the same time as them, fitting in the bed like he’s been there all along.

Tony coaxes them into a slow, languid fuck, sucking Steve off as Bruce thrusts into his ass. It’s amazing and exhausting and seems to help Bruce remember that he belongs with the two of them. He doesn’t even try to go to his old apartment after like Tony expected, just falls asleep with an arm wrapped tightly around Tony’s waist and his face pressed into his neck.

-

When they wake up, Steve is already off on a run, which becomes a regular thing in the following weeks. It’s an ideal situation. Steve would go insane on six hours of sleep a day, but if he heads for the gym or goes on a run when he naturally wakes up, he’s done with his work out by the time Bruce and Tony are ready to wake up.

The rest of the team doesn’t seem surprised that Steve is now part of Bruce and Tony’s orbit, that they all go to bed at the same time and that every now and again, it’s Steve’s lap Tony ends up in during movie nights instead of Bruce’s.

Bruce tries every so often to convince either Steve or Tony that they should let him go before he’s overstayed his welcome, that it would hurt more if he sticks around long enough for them to grow tired of him. It’s easier every time to convince him that neither of them could ever grow tired of him, until eventually, he doesn’t bring it up anymore at all.

It still bugs Tony that Steve and him are so distant, though, especially since they used to be really comfortable around each other before. They still are, of course, comfortable enough to share Tony between them in bed, but they don’t hug, don’t touch, even though Tony knows they used to. 

Steve tells him it’s going to take time, but Tony isn’t a very patient person, keeps giving Steve meaningful looks every time he feels like he should be touching Bruce until Steve eventually rolls his eyes and gives in. This particular night, they’re spending with the team. Bucky had been reluctant, but even he’s there, sharing a loveseat with Clint and nursing a beer. They’ve got a blunt to pass around and a fine selection of drinks to choose from, courtesy of Tony. 

Tony has an armchair of his own, but Bruce and Steve are sharing a couch with Thor, Steve’s arm slung over the backrest behind Bruce. Bruce had been leaning forward before, engaged enough in the conversation that he didn’t seem to be purposefully avoiding Steve’s arm. Now he’s leaning back, though, relaxed from the weed and the nice night. Tony has been giving Steve looks all night and now, slightly flushed from the Asgardian mead he’s been sipping, Steve rolls his eyes and lowers his arm until it’s around Bruce’s shoulders.

Bruce glances up at him for a second, looking vulnerable, but then he leans into the touch. He’s still pressed against Steve by the time they all decide to turn in and Tony counts it as progress at least.

-

He knows that most of the time it happens, it’s out of view from him. Bruce has always tried to hide perceived flaws from Tony for as long as he could: his drug use back when they met, his fear of thunderstorms, his dislike of Disney movies, his rare bad moods, the failed bomb test that turned him into the Hulk. He’s sure that Bruce sees this as a weakness, his inability to resist Steve’s touch, something he thinks he doesn’t deserve to have.

JARVIS sets the footage aside for Tony like he does bugs and anomalies, puts them in his logs and everything. Tony finds it there one evening, a compilation of five moments, Steve reaching out and Bruce letting him.

Steve insists on fixing Bruce a snack before bed in the kitchen because Bruce missed dinner, puts his arm around Bruce’s shoulders halfway through and finishes the rest of the snack one-handed, kisses the top of his head before they head upstairs to Tony.

Then there’s the lab, Steve who comes in looking for Tony but makes a beeline for Bruce when it turns out Tony isn’t there and presses a kiss to Bruce’s cheek, soft and deliberate the way he kisses Tony, too.

Then in the bathroom in the middle of the night, when Tony must have still been asleep. Bruce is splashing cold water into his face almost frantically after a nightmare. He avoids looking into the mirror, staying there staring at his hands until Steve comes to find him. This is the only time Steve asks for permission, a quiet ‘Can I-‘ and the barest of nods from Bruce. When Steve hugs Bruce, Bruce hugs back with desperation, burying his face into Steve’s neck like all the evils in the world will forget Bruce exists if he just hides there.

There’s yesterday morning, Steve crawling back into bed after his run, when Tony has already gotten up for a meeting and Bruce is still asleep. When Bruce wakes up, Steve creeps closer and puts a broad hand over Bruce’s chest. Bruce, slow and hesitant, puts his hand right over Steve’s to keep it there.

Then there’s today, only a half an hour ago, Bruce sitting down closer to Steve than he usually would on the couch until Steve pulls him close.

Tony goes down to the common living room and finds them still there, both dozing off, although Steve cracks open an eye when he hears Tony. He sits down on Steve’s other side, pries the remote out of his hands, the TV muted but on a sports channel. Tony starts to flip between channels and lets Steve pull him down until Tony’s head is resting in his lap, so that he’s close to Steve and Bruce both.

It’s quiet, which is something Tony doesn’t usually deal with well, but he doesn’t mind right now. Bruce wakes up with a huff and then there’s a hand buried in Tony’s hair that moves to his cheek eventually.

‘Hi,’ Bruce says quietly.

Tony smiles, tilting his face into Bruce’s touch. ‘Hi,’ he whispers back.

They doze some more, until Clint wakes them up by trying to quietly take pictures of them until he bumps his leg against the coffee table and curses loudly. The first thing Tony sees when he wakes up is Clint with one hand clutching his leg and the other holding his phone, standing frozen and looking like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

‘Aren’t you supposed to be a spy?’, Tony manages, rubbing his eyes.

‘I was distracted. You three look like a pile of puppies.’

‘I feel like Tony is more of a cat,’ Bruce says, sounding completely normal, like he wasn’t just rudely woken up. He’s no longer touching Tony’s cheek, but he’s got a hand fisted in Tony’s hair, just holding on.

‘Are there still pancakes in the fridge?’, Clint asks, still rubbing his leg.

‘Yeah. The strawberries are on the counter,’ Steve tells him. He shifts a little like he’s about to get up and Tony twists around and wraps an arm around his waist. ‘You gotta stay and cuddle with Bruce some more,’ Tony mumbles into Steve’s stomach.

‘I should get back to work, Tony,’ Bruce says and Tony tilts his head to glare at him.

‘No,’ Tony says too quickly, not sure how to explain this to Bruce without outright admitting that Tony has a thing for seeing his boyfriend and his soulmate so close together.

Steve tugs at Tony’s shoulders until Tony sits up and lets Steve pull him into his lap. He gives Tony a look like he’s trying to convince Tony through sheer willpower. ‘This isn’t a one time thing, yeah? Right, Bruce?’

Bruce nods, sits up on his knees to press into Tony’s space, lips against Tony’s cheek. ‘Steve and I will cuddle some more tonight, okay?’

Tony turns his head so he can kiss him, then presses a kiss to the corner of Steve’s mouth before they all get back to work.

-

They keep their promise and that night, Tony falls asleep with and arm and leg draped over Bruce’s side, his other hand fisted in Bruce’s tee, while Steve cuddles Bruce from behind.

He wakes up in the middle of the night to their quiet voices.

‘Still worried about overstaying your welcome?’ That’s Steve, voice low and quiet. He must know Tony is awake, from Tony’s breathing, but he doesn’t acknowledge him, continues the conversation Bruce and him must been having for a bit now without mentioning that Tony is awake.

‘I’m not _worried_ about it. I’m happy that you have each other, that Tony is happy. I’m glad to be a part of it for now, but I’m not scared to leave.’ Bruce is turned towards Steve, lying close enough to him to make Tony’s heart flutter embarrassingly. 

‘Bullshit. You’d be fine without Tony? After twenty years?’

‘I didn’t say I’d be fine. But I can handle it.’

‘You’re not gonna have to, though. I’m not kidding about not letting anybody hurt him.’

‘God, I should have known the two of you put together would be this fucking stubborn.’

‘Like you mind.’

‘Don’t hold my well-documented weakness for lovable, stubborn assholes against me.’

‘I would never,’ Steve whispers, mock-scandalised. ‘I’m just as bad as you are,’ he adds, more seriously.

‘You only fell for one of them.’

There’s a silence after that and Tony isn’t sure whether it’s because Bruce just admitted that _he_ fell for more than one stubborn asshole or that it is because of his utterly ridiculous implication that Steve doesn’t have it as bad for Bruce as he does for Tony.

‘If I told you this was all a dream, would you drop it?’, Bruce asks, little humour to his voice.

‘No. You… You’re.’ Steve falls silent. ‘I didn’t expect you to say that,’ he manages then.

‘It’s because you’re dreaming, I’m telling you.’

‘You fell for me? That’s what you’re saying, right?’

‘I feel like I wasn’t very subtle about it, to be honest.’

‘I never noticed a thing.’

‘Really? I haven’t used the Stark Tower gym once since I moved in here but I’ve spent hours there with you.’

‘But that’s just – scientific interest.’

Bruce shakes his head. ‘That’s how teenagers act when they have a crush.’

‘So you’re not avoiding me because you don’t like me?’

‘I’m not avoiding you.’

‘You know what I mean.’

‘What I feel for you is the opposite of dislike.’ Somehow Bruce makes it sound like a romantic declaration, or as close to one as he’s ever gotten. ‘I know… I’ve talked about this with Tony and I _know_ that he wouldn’t mind. He’s been actively encouraging this from day one, but I still feel guilty. This isn’t mine to have, to be a part of. You’re so lucky to have this and you deserve it so much, both of you. I know how hard you’ve both had to fight for this. I don’t want to diminish that victory even a little bit.’

‘Bruce, you wouldn’t be diminishing anything. Fuck, you’d be… What I have with Tony is perfect, but if I… If I could have you, too, that perfection would just be so much bigger. You know, like a bigger infinity.’

There’s a long silence. ‘We should talk about this to Tony, when we’re not half-asleep.’

‘That’s a great idea.’

Steve, romantic fool that he is, lifts Bruce’s hand to his lips and presses a kiss to Bruce’s knuckles. Tony can hear the breath that shudders out of Bruce at that and Tony doesn’t blame him. It’s very hard to react normally when Steve Rogers is giving you the gentleman’s treatment.

-

In the morning, Steve doesn’t go on his run and sleeps in instead and when the three of them wake up, he’s still clutching Bruce’s hand. Tony figures that’s as good of a jumping off point as any, so he eyes their entangled hands obnoxiously until either Bruce or Steve starts this conversation they said they were going to have.

Instead of talking, Bruce gives him the most guilty, most terrifyingly vulnerable look Tony has ever seen. It’s gone in a second, Bruce’s expression going to the mild-mannered scientist façade he puts on for strangers and SHIELD agents. It’s disconcerting to see here, where he is usually so open. ‘Tony,’ he starts, pulling his hand out of Steve’s grip. ‘You have a say in this. This isn’t an ul-‘

‘I think you should fuck Steve,’ Tony blurts out. ‘Or that Steve should fuck you. I don’t know. We should discuss it first. Sorry for assuming you bottom, Steve.’

Steve gives him a wicked grin. ‘Oh, don’t worry. I’m very versatile.’

Tony can’t help but smile at that, gives Bruce an incredulous look, not conveying much else but _Captain America wants to bottom for you Holy Fucking Shit how lucky are we?_ and Bruce’s expression isn’t much different.

Steve’s hand drapes itself over Bruce’s hip. ‘You shouldn’t propose that unless you mean it,’ he says, looking at Tony.

‘We should definitely discuss this first,’ Bruce says.

So Tony pushes and prods at the both of them until they’re sitting cross-legged in a circle. ‘My view is: I love both of you and if you both loved each other _and_ loved me, that would be great. And by great I mean everything I want. Also after this I think we should all go brush our teeth so we can fuck.’

‘My view is the same,’ Steve says. ‘Love you both, would be cool if you loved me back, wanna fuck.’

‘Great,’ Tony grins.

Bruce is looking at them like they just told him they really enjoy rubbing ice cream all over themselves, not like he minds, but like he just _doesn’t get it_. ‘My view is that you’re both crazy, but you don’t have to worry about me, you know, not loving you back or anything. And I am very much ready to go brush my teeth now.’

Tony beams at him. Bruce has never been one to say “I love you” out loud and Tony is okay with that. ‘Let’s go.’

They brush their teeth in a hurry, use the bathroom, get each other undressed and get back to the bed in record time.

Tony pulls Bruce into a kiss as soon as Bruce gets into bed again and when they pull apart, Steve is watching them with hungry eyes.

‘You should kiss,’ Tony manages, although his mouth is a lot dryer than it should be.

Bruce doesn’t let go of Tony’s hips, just tilts his head to the side so that Steve, who has come up behind him, can kiss him like that. Tony isn’t sure how he’s supposed to get through this without coming right away, when just watching Bruce’s tongue push into Steve’s mouth already has him rock hard. ‘Fuck,’ he breathes and Bruce and Steve pull apart to look at him.

‘You okay there?’, Steve asks, teasing. ‘Your irises are fucking gone.’

‘Do you like to bottom, Steve? Cause Bruce doesn’t really like to bottom.’

Steve smiles. ‘I like it a lot. You look like you need someone to take care of you first, though.’ 

Steve, in a move that’s quick and gentle despite that, tackles Tony onto the bed, sweeping him out of his sitting position and onto his back, pinned down beneath Steve. Steve presses a kiss to his lips, messy and hot, and his and Bruce’s fingers find Tony’s hole at the same time, both already lubed. They each press a finger in at the same time, like they’re coordinating all of this through telepathy, and Tony gasps and writhes. They’re gentle but they’re so fucking persistent, pushing their fingers in deep, rhythm not quite matching as they start thrusting, pulling apart just a little, until Tony whines at the stretch. By the time they finally push in a third and then immediately a fourth finger respectively, Tony is out of breath and sweaty, trying to keep it together as Bruce and Steve do everything they can to take him apart.

‘How many times can you come?’, Bruce is murmuring into Steve’s neck.

Steve, who is flushed and can’t look away from Tony’s ass, takes a moment to answer. ‘However many times you want.’

Bruce smiles. Bruce always liked to push his own limits as far as he could get them, until the Hulk made that from an irresponsible to a life-threatening activity. Having someone like Steve, whose limits are completely unknown, hidden somewhere for Bruce to discover, must be a fucking dream come true to Bruce. Not that Tony isn’t just as excited. ‘Really?’

‘There isn’t really a limit. My refractory period gets longer after a while, but I’ve never really hit a hard limit the way I would before the serum.’

‘Good. In that case I’d like to see you come inside of Tony.’

Steve smiles at him. ‘Gladly.’

He kisses Tony as he pushes into him, goes all slow and gentle because Bruce tells him to.

‘How quickly can you come?’, Bruce asks after a while of that. He’s lounging on his side next to Tony, stroking aside his sweaty hair and murmuring praises into his ear.

‘Right now? Probably in half a minute, if I try.’

‘You have that much control over it?’

‘Yeah. For the first few orgasms, at least. Even after that I can do it in five minutes or so.’

‘If you ever want to find out where the limit is, we’ll gladly take a day off to find out.’

‘Oh there’s no need. I’ve tried before, you know, but my partners always got tired before I did. Even multiple partners.’

‘I think you’re forgetting something.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Tony is an engineer. Could design something that could fuck you without ever getting tired.’

Steve looks amazing, pupils blown, face flushed, hair falling over his forehead in sweaty strands. All he manages is, ‘Fuck.’

‘I could have a prototype ready for you in a week.’ He tilts his head. ‘Five days,’ he corrects. Steve kisses him, then raises his head to get a kiss from Bruce.

‘If we got tired, we could just go to bed, head for the lab for a little, whatever. And you’d still be here, a dildo fucking into you. What do you think of that?’

‘I thought this relationship would be the two of us spoiling Tony, but I can get on board with getting spoiled, too.’

Bruce presses a kiss to his cheek, then goes to sit by Tony’s head so he can grab his hair, pull it a little so that Tony arches his back. ‘Come on, then,’ Bruce says. ‘Come inside him.’

Steve’s pace is fast and only grows faster as Bruce eggs him on. Tony is pushed up and down the mattress as Steve fucks him and moans and whines when it only makes the grip Bruce has on his hair tighter. Then Steve stills inside him after not even a full minute, groaning against Tony’s neck as he comes.

‘Are you still hard?’, Bruce asks, after only a few seconds of respite.

‘Yes,’ Steve says and Tony can feel it, that Steve isn’t going soft inside of him in the slightest.

‘Then keep going.’

Steve does. Slightly more gently. He kisses Tony messily and Tony moans into his mouth. ‘How are you feeling, Tony?’, he asks against Tony’s lips.

‘I could do this all day,’ Tony manages, breathless, and for some reason, Steve laughs at that, burying his face in Tony’s neck as he does so.

‘So could I,’ Steve says and then he’s moving faster than Tony can follow, flipping Tony over onto his stomach, pulling his ass upwards as Bruce helpfully pushes down his shoulders into the mattress. Steve gathers Tony’s hands behind his back with one hand as he lines up with the other. Tony is effectively pinned, between Steve holding his wrists immobile as he thrusts into Tony and Bruce keeping pressure on his shoulders. Tony fucking loves it. He’s been held down and immobilised a whole lot in his life and having it happen like this, where he feels safe, with people he trusts, that he knows will protect him no matter what, makes him feel so cared for and strong, like nothing bad can ever happen to him, not as long as he’s here with Steve and Bruce keeping him right where he needs to be.

Steve fucks him hard and it feels so fucking good and overwhelming, even more so when his hand joins Bruce’s on his shoulders and then moves to his cheek, pressing his face into the mattress as well. Tony is noisy, moaning shamelessly and Steve and Bruce are praising him, encouraging him, their hands touching him gently as long as he does not try to move.

Bruce says, ‘Come,’ and Steve stills inside of Tony again, groaning. Not even five minutes later, Bruce says it again and Steve comes again just like that, sounding a lot more whiny and oversensitive this time. Eventually Bruce tells him to pull out and Steve does, although he keeps a hold of Tony’s wrists. Bruce is still pressing him into the mattress, too, and he kind of hopes they can just stay like this, secure and quiet and good. Steve lets him lie down fully, ass down, and takes the hand he had pressed to Tony’s cheek away. Bruce lets go of Tony’s shoulders, but takes over Steve’s hold on his wrists. Tony moves his head enough to nuzzle Bruce’s crotch through his underwear, feeling floaty and lazy and good. When Tony is pretty much sucking him off through the fabric of his boxers, Bruce takes pity on him and pulls out his cock. Tony moans as he sucks it down, knows exactly what to do to make Bruce feel good without getting him too close to coming.

‘Prep yourself,’ Bruce says to Steve. ‘Give us a show. Make it look good.’

Tony hears a lube bottle click open and shut, keeps sucking Bruce even though he kind of wants to look, until Bruce gently tugs him off his cock and gets him to sit up to lean against Bruce’s chest and watch Steve. Tony keeps his hands behind his back because he likes the idea of them having to stay there, even though neither Bruce nor Steve ever gave him an order like that. Bruce’s fingers find his crossed wrists, curl around them protectively and he presses a kiss to Tony’s cheek.

Then their attention settles on Steve, who already has two fingers inside himself, head tilted back and eyes closed, mouth open slightly, pleasure written in every line of his body.

‘Do you like how that feels?’, Bruce asks.

‘Love it,’ Steve pants. ‘’m sensitive from coming. ‘s gonna hurt when you fuck me.’ He presses a third finger in roughly, his next moan sounding almost like a sob.

Bruce wraps his hand around Tony’s cock and Tony arches his back against him. ‘You better prep well, then. You only have until Tony comes.’

Steve doesn’t seem like he’s in much of a hurry to open himself up for Bruce, despite how close Tony already is. He seems happy and relaxed as he watches the easy dance between Bruce and Tony, Tony letting go as Bruce coaxes him closer to orgasm with just his hands. 

Tony likes having Bruce’s attention like this. He knows that Bruce sees and feels even the most subtle of his reactions, catalogues them, accounts for them, looks for ways to repeat the ones he likes.

By the time Tony comes, actually shaking, a lot more quietly than he’d like to admit, Steve still has three fingers pushed inside himself, moving them slowly, like he’s not worried about taking Bruce at all. He pulls them out so that he can crawl over and kiss Tony, who is lazy and content and lets Steve murmur praises against his lips while Bruce gets up from behind Tony.

He’s not paying much attention to Bruce and Steve, but Steve grunts against his neck when Bruce pushes into him, curses quietly while Tony pets his hair.

Bruce is close to them like this, lips presses against Steve’s neck, so that Tony can easily reach for him, too, egg him on as he thrusts into Steve hard.

Steve is noisy, moans into Tony’s shoulder with every thrust, only gets noisier when one of Tony’s hands drifts down to jerk his hard-again cock.

Then, somehow mustering the energy despite how roughly Bruce is fucking him and how many times he’s come already, Steve manhandles Tony further up the bed, gets him to lie back and pushes his legs up against his chest. Tony whines when Steve bites his calf and moans when he moves further down, licking Tony’s cock before he moves on to his ass. He licks, sucks and bites at Tony’s hole, probably encountering his own come on the way.

Tony doesn’t think he can get hard even if this is the hottest thing that has happened in all of human history, but he’s fine with that, content to enjoy watching Bruce fuck Steve, listening to Steve’s noises, feeling Steve’s tongue on him.

Steve comes twice more before Bruce stills inside of him and comes and he looks actually exhausted, even if he’s still half-hard. Bruce gets him to lie on his back so he can kiss him while Tony goes to the bathroom to get a washcloth.

When he gets back, having cleaned himself up already, Steve is wrapped around Bruce in a tight hug, Bruce looking kind of dazed as Steve presses kisses to his shoulder, where Bruce’s mark used to be, where the scar is. Tony joins them on the bed, hugs Bruce from behind so that he can kiss Bruce’s scar, too. They’ll never know what his mark looked like, but he imagines it might look exactly like his and Steve’s.

Bruce reaches behind himself so he can pull them both closer and Tony isn’t sure if any of them are ever letting go.

**Author's Note:**

> Steve's sensory abilities are inspired by the fic Talking Bodies by itsallAvengers (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21004430)
> 
> Steve and Bruce's dynamic is in part inspired by the fic Figure Drawing by thingswithwings (https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049213)
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the read!


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